Small neuraminidase gene of Clostridium perfringens ATCC 10543: cloning, nucleotide sequence, and production

Clostridial hydrolytic enzymes degrading extracellular components

Bacteria belonging to the genus Clostridium, both glycolytic and proteolytic, and both pathogenic and non-pathogenic, produce a battery of hydrolytic enzymes to obtain nutrients from various biopolymers. The clostridial hydrolytic enzymes are diverse, and are used or are potentially useful for fundamental and applied research purposes. Among them, enzymes degrading the major components in the extracellular matrix or on the cell surface in vertebrates are herein reviewed with special emphasis on recent knowledge gained through molecular biology of clostridial collagenases, sialidases and hyaluronidases. This paper also reviews some literature on the biotechnological approach to the designing of new molecular tools and drug delivery systems involving clostridial hydrolytic enzymes.

Virulence genes of Clostridium perfringens

Clostridium perfringens causes human gas gangrene and food poisoning as well as several enterotoxemic diseases of animals. The organism is characterized by its ability to produce numerous extracellular toxins including alpha-toxin or phospholipase C, theta-toxin or perfringolysin O, kappa-toxin or collagenase, as well as a sporulation-associated enterotoxin. Although the genes encoding the alpha-toxin and theta-toxin are located on the chromosome, the genes encoding many of the other extracellular toxins are located on large plasmids. The enterotoxin gene can be either chromosomal or plasmid determined. Several of these toxin genes are associated with insertion sequences. The production of many of the extracellular toxins is regulated at the transcriptional level by the products of the virR and virS genes, which together comprise a two-component signal transduction system.