Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026

High-Resolution Comparison of Bacterial Conjugation Frequencies
Published on: January 10, 2019
Horizontal gene transfer of toxin genes in Clostridium botulinum: Involvement of mobile elements and plasmids
1Department of Bacteriology; National Veterinary Institute (SVA); Uppsala, Sweden.
Abstract:
Intoxication with the potent botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) gives rise to the serious paralytic illness botulism. BoNT is part of a complex that consists of the neurotoxin and several associated components, all encoded by the bont gene cluster. This gene cluster has likely been subjected to horizontal gene transfer between different groups of clostridia, which has given rise to the genetically diverse species Clostridium botulinum. C. botulinum is divided into four physiological groups (I-IV), where group I and II cause disease in humans and group III in animals. Analysis of the genomes of group I, II and III has revealed that toxin genes, including the bont cluster, often are plasmid-borne. The genomes analyzed from group III contain an unusually high number of plasmids carrying different toxin genes. Some of these genes are also found in other Clostridium species and some have moved between different plasmids within the same physiological group. This indicates that horizontal transfer of toxin genes is taking place within and between species of Clostridium. The abundance of mobile elements, especially in genomes of group III, is likely connected to accelerated genome plasticity and gene transfer events.
Related Concept Videos
Horizontal Gene Transfer
Transposons
Transduction
Mechanism of Conjugation
Bacterial Transformation
Griffith made an unexpected discovery when he killed the pathogenic strain and mixed its remains with the live, non-pathogenic strain. Not only did the mixture kill host mice, but it also contained living pathogenic bacteria that...
Conjugation

