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Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Enrichment and Detection of Clostridium perfringens Toxinotypes in Retail Food Samples
Published on: October 18, 2019
Clostridium perfringens type A-E toxin plasmids
John C Freedman1, James R Theoret1, Jessica A Wisniewski2
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Abstract:
Clostridium perfringens relies upon plasmid-encoded toxin genes to cause intestinal infections. These toxin genes are associated with insertion sequences that may facilitate their mobilization and transfer, giving rise to new toxin plasmids with common backbones. Most toxin plasmids carry a transfer of clostridial plasmids locus mediating conjugation, which likely explains the presence of similar toxin plasmids in otherwise unrelated C. perfringens strains. The association of many toxin genes with insertion sequences and conjugative plasmids provides virulence flexibility when causing intestinal infections. However, incompatibility issues apparently limit the number of toxin plasmids maintained by a single cell.
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