Clostridium perfringens produces numerous toxins, which are responsible for severe diseases in man and animals. Delta toxin is one of the three hemolysins released by a number of C. perfringens type C and possibly type B strains. Delta toxin was characterized to be cytotoxic for cells expressing the ganglioside G(M2) in their membrane. Here we report the genetic characterization of Delta toxin ...

Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium, which is widely distributed in the environment. C. perfringens is subdivided to 5 groups (types A to E), based on its four major toxin (alpha, beta, epsilon and iota). C. perfringens type B beta toxin causes inflammation and bloody necrotic enteritis. Type B related enterotoxaemia is a major problem of veterinary sciences...

The ability of voltage-gated potassium channel alpha-subunits to form heteromultimers has complicated efforts to use toxins to characterize potassium channels in native cells. Here I investigate the effects of subunit composition on toxin blocking affinity, using three members of the Shaker subfamily of potassium channel alpha-subunits (Kv1.1, Kv1.2 and Kv1.4), which are known to form heteromul...

INTRODUCTION ..... .. 320 STAPHYLOCOCCAL SCALDED SKIN SYNDROME 322 Experimental Model 324 Association of the Staphylococcal Scalded Skin Syndrome with Exfoliative Toxin ................. ... .324 EXFOLIATIVE TOXIN 325 Production 325 Isolation and Purification ... 326 Properties .. 326 Genetic Regulation ......................... ..... 331 ALPHA-TOXIN ......................... ...... 337 Overvie...

Binding of GTP induces alpha subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins to take on an active conformation, capable of regulating effector molecules. We expressed epitope-tagged versions of the alpha subunit (alpha s) of Gs in genetically alpha s-deficient S49 cyc- cells. Addition of a hemagglutinin (HA) epitope did not alter the ability of wild type alpha s to mediate hormonal stimulation of adenyly...

Oligonucleotide probes designed on the basis of the N-terminal sequence of Clostridium perfringens beta-toxin were used to isolate the encoding gene (cpb). The nucleotide sequence of cpb was determined, and on the basis of DNA hybridization experiments it was shown that the gene is found only in type B and C strains of C. perfringens. The deduced amino acid sequence of the beta-toxin revealed h...

Guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins, or G proteins, mediate the interaction of agonist receptors on the platelet surface with phospholipase C and adenylyl cyclase. To better understand this process, we have used several approaches to identify which G proteins are present in platelets, normal human megakaryocytes, and human erythroleukemia (HEL) cells, a leukemic cell line with megaka...