You have full text access to this OnlineOpen article

Variant toxin B and a functional toxin A produced by Clostridium difficile C34

  1. Markus Mehlig1,
  2. Michael Moos1,
  3. Veit Braun1,
  4. Bettina Kalt1,
  5. David E. Mahony2,
  6. Christoph von Eichel-Streiber1,*

Article first published online: 9 JAN 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2001.tb10638.x

Issue

FEMS Microbiology Letters

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Volume 198, Issue 2, pages 171–176, May 2001

Additional Information

How to Cite

Mehlig, M., Moos, M., Braun, V., Kalt, B., Mahony, D. E. and von Eichel-Streiber, C. (2001), Variant toxin B and a functional toxin A produced by Clostridium difficile C34. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 198: 171–176. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2001.tb10638.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Verfügungsgebäude für Forschung und Entwicklung, Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 55101 Mainz, Germany

  2. 2

    Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4H7

* *Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 (6131) 3930020; Fax: +49 (6131) 3933364, E-mail: veichel@mail.uni-mainz.de

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 JAN 2006
  2. Article first published online: 9 JAN 2006
  3. Received 29 January 2001, Revised 11 March 2001, Accepted 15 March 2001

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (699K)

Keywords:

  • Large clostridial cytotoxin;
  • Cytopathic effect;
  • Rho;
  • R-Ras;
  • Glucosylation;
  • GTPase

Abstract

A particular property of Clostridium difficile strain C34 is an insertion of approximately 2 kb in the tcdA-C34 gene that does not hinder expression of a fully active TcdA-C34 molecule. Intoxication with TcdA-C34 induced an arborized appearance in eukaryotic cells (D-type cytopathic effect); intoxication with TcdB-C34 induced a spindle-like appearance of cells (S-type cytopathic effect). Inactivation of GTPases with purified toxins revealed that Rho, Rac, Cdc42, and Rap are substrates of TcdA-C34. The variant cytotoxin TcdB-C34 inactivated Rho, Rac, Cdc42, Rap, Ral, and R-Ras. Hence, this is the first ‘S-type’ cytotoxin which inactivates both Rho and R-Ras, and is coexpressed with a ‘D-type’ enterotoxin. Our results support the hypothesis that R-Ras is a key GTPase related to the S-type cytopathic effect and suggest that induction of a S-type cytopathic effect dominates induction of the D-type cytopathic effect.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (699K)