Purification and Activity of Clostridium perfringens Alpha Toxin ¹

Clostridium perfringens a-toxin obtained from a commercial source contained at least seven protein bands when examined by SDS polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis. The fraction with an R_m of 0.29-0.56 contained 95.6% of the total hemolytic activity and all of the phospholipolytic acitivity. The a-toxin when passed through a Sephadex G-100 column yielded several peaks but only one active fraction. This fraction upon electrophoresis in a SDS polyacrylamide disc gel system contained two protein bands. Only one protein with a R_m of 0.64 possessed hemolytic and phospholipolytic activites. A second passage of the active fraction through Sephadex G-100 yielded only one protein band. This protein exhibited both hemolytic and phospholipolytic activities. For C. perfringens , it is apparent that both of these activities reside with the same protein.