Abstract
The Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium Clostridium perfringens is widely distributed in nature, especially in soil and the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals. C. perfringens causes gas gangrene and food poisoning, and it produces extracellular enzymes and toxins that are thought to act synergistically and contribute to its pathogenesis. A complicated regulatory network of toxin genes has been reported that includes a two-component system for regulatory RNA and cell-cell communication. It is necessary to clarify the global regulatory system of these genes in order to understand and treat the virulence of C. perfringens. We summarize the existing knowledge about the regulatory mechanisms here.
Highlights
Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive anaerobic spore-forming bacterium that is widely distributed in nature, especially in soil and the intestinal tracts of humans and animals
Three other major toxins are encoded on the plasmid, and the classification of C. perfringens is based on the presence of plasmids encoding β-toxin (CPB, cpb gene), ε-toxin (ETX, etx gene), and ι-toxin (ITX, iap and ibp gene) [4]
These data indicated that the VirS/VirR-VR-RNA system is a global regulatory system that is needed to coordinate multiple functions of genes so that the C. perfringens can multiply in the host which would, in turn, cause the typical symptoms of gas gangrene
Summary
Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive anaerobic spore-forming bacterium that is widely distributed in nature, especially in soil and the intestinal tracts of humans and animals. It causes clostridial myonecrosis (gas gangrene) and mild enterotoxemia in humans. The growth of C. perfringens in a host organism, requires both the degradation of host tissues in small-size nutrients and the rapid transport of the nutrients into bacterial cells. C. perfringens starts growing, the host organism imports sugar compounds from host tissues that are degrading, and C. perfringens uses the sugar to produce energy through an anaerobic glycolysis pathway. C. perfringens produces various toxins, and the production of toxins is tightly regulated by specific gene regulatory systems [6]. We summarize the progress of the research related to the regulation of toxin production by C. perfringens
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