The flagellin genes (fliC) of Clostridium chauvoei, Clostridium haemolyticum, Clostridium novyi types A and B, and Clostridium septicum were analysed by PCR amplification and DNA sequencing. The five Clostridium species have at least two copies of the flagellin gene (fliC) arranged in tandem on the chromosome. The deduced N- and C-terminal aminoacid sequences of the flagellin proteins (FliCs) of these clostridia are well conserved but their central region aminoacid sequences are not. Phylogenic analysis based on the N-terminal aminoacid sequence of the FliC protein revealed that these clostridia, which belong to Clostridium 16S rDNA phylogenic cluster I (), are more closely related to Bacillus subtilis than to Clostridium difficile, which belongs to the cluster XI. Moreover, a multiplex polymerase reaction (PCR) system based on the fliC sequence was developed to rapidly identify C. chauvoei, C. haemolyticum, C. novyi types A and B, and C. septicum. PCR of each Clostridium amplified a species-specific band. The multiplex PCR system may be useful for rapid identification of pathogenic clostridia.

The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 10 antimicrobial agents against a total of 33 isolates of Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium septicum and Clostridium sordellii from cattle affected with malignant edema in Japan was determined. The low MIC activities of benzylpenicillin confirm the place of benzylpenicillin as the antibiotics of choice for treatment of malignant edema. Five (22%) of 23 C. septicum strains, five (71%) of seven C. perfringens strains and all strains of C. sordellii showed resistance to oxytetracycline. These oxytetracycline-resistant strains carried tetracycline-resistance genes [tetA(P), tetA408(P), tetB(P) and tetM]. The sequences of the tetracycline-resistance genes of some C. septicum strains were completely or nearly completely identical to those of strains belonging to other clostridiual species. This is the first report of resistance of C. septicum to tetracycline.

Clostridium septicum alpha-toxin genes were sequenced with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products amplified from DNAs of 25 C. septicum strains, and were classified into 10 patterns. Alpha-toxins were purified from the culture supernatant of four C. septicum strains (strains No. 44, Kagoshima 8, Mie and Tokachi) which were specially chosen from patterns of the deduced amino acid sequences. The molecular weights of the alpha-toxins were not different according to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis. However, the isoelectric points between the alpha-toxins of No. 44 and Tokachi strains differed markedly. Cross-neutralization tests were performed with purified alpha-toxins and antitoxins in mice and in Vero cells. Each antitoxin showed roughly the same titers against the four alpha-toxins in mice and completely identical titers against these in Vero cells. Calves immunized with toxoid prepared from the culture supernatant of No.44 strain were challenged by exposure to spores of Mie strain. The toxoid conferred protection against the challenge in calves. From these results, although genetic variation has been observed within the C. septicum alpha-toxin gene, C. septicum strains toxoid of strain No.44 induces protective immunity against exposure to C. septicum that produce other subtypes of alpha-toxin containing several different amino acid residues.

In the present study, a Taqman allelic discrimination assay based on three SNPs of the TPI gene is described. It was used as a differential diagnostic tool to detect blackleg and malignant edema. Sudden deaths of grazing ruminants, such as cattle, sheep and goats, which show clinical signs related to hyperacute infective processes, encouraged the development of a rapid and precise diagnostic molecular method. Specific primers and probes for Clostridium septicum and Clostridium chauvoei were designed on the basis of the TPI gene sequence. The multiplex PCR was tested on the DNA of a total of 57 strains, including 24 Clostridium chauvoei, 20 Clostridium septicum, 1 Bacillus anthracis and 12 other Clostridium spp. The DNA samples from Clostridium chauvoei and Clostridium septicum strains were amplified. Amplification of other DNA samples was not observed, with the exception of Clostridium tertium, which showed a weak positive signal. To avoid misdiagnosis, a confirmatory assay based on a Sybr green real time PCR was proposed. The authors confirmed the efficacy and the specificity of the test used in this study, which proved to be a useful tool for the diagnosis of clostridiosis that are often diagnosed using only traditional tools.

An oligonucleotide mixture corresponding to the codons for conserved and repeated amino acid sequences of bacterial sialidases (Roggentin et al. 1989) was used to clone a 4.3 kb PstI restriction fragment of Clostridium septicum DNA in Escherichia coli. The complete nucleotide sequence of the sialidase gene was determined from this fragment. The derived amino acid sequence corresponds to a protein of 110,000 Da. The ribosomal binding site and promoter-like consensus sequences were identified upstream from the putative ATG initiation codon. The molecular and immunological properties of the sialidase expressed by E. coli are similar to those of the sialidase as isolated from C. septicum. The newly synthesized protein is assumed to include a leader peptide of 26 amino acids. On sequence alignment, the sialidases from C. septicum, C. sordellii and C. perfringens show significant homologies. As in other bacterial sialidases, conserved amino acid sequences occur at four positions in the protein. Aside from the consensus sequences, only poor homology to other bacterial and viral sialidases was found. The consensus sequence could be identified even in other, non-sialidase proteins, indicating a common function or the evolutionary relatedness of these proteins.

Clostridium chauvoei is the causative agent of blackleg in cattle and sheep. The clinical symptoms of this severe disease are very similar to that of malignant edema (Clostridium septicum), infections of other Clostridium species belonging to the gas edema complex, and anthrax (Bacillus anthracis). C. chauvoei and C. septicum are closely related taxa and share many phenotypic properties hampering diagnosis by using traditional microbiological methods. Thus, there is a need for a fast and reliable identification method for specific detection of both species in clinical samples. The multiplex real-time PCR assay presented here is based on the detection of the spo0A gene and enables the simultaneous identification of C. chauvoei and C. septicum. The assay design includes an amplification control DNA template for the recognition of PCR-inhibitors. Assay validation was performed using a collection of 29 C. chauvoei, 38 C. septicum strains and 26 strains of other Clostridium species. Furthermore, the real-time PCR assay was successfully tested on tissue samples from 19 clinical blackleg cases. The assay allowed the reliable detection of one picogram DNA which represents approximate 239 genome equivalents.

Clostridium septicum is a highly virulent, anaerobic bacterium capable of establishing necrotizing tissue infections and forming heat resistant endospores. Disease is primarily facilitated by secretion of numerous toxic products including a lethal pore-forming cytolysin. Spontaneously occurring clostridial myonecrosis involving C. septicum has recently reemerged as a concern for many poultry producers. However, despite its increasing prevalence, the epidemiology of infection and population structure of C. septicum remains largely unknown. In this study a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) approach was utilized to examine evolutionary relationships within a diverse collection of C. septicum isolates recovered from poultry flocks experiencing episodes of gangrenous dermatitis. The 109 isolates examined represented 42 turkey flocks and 24 different flocks of broiler chickens as well as C. septicum type strain, ATCC 12464. Isolates were recovered predominantly from gangrenous lesions although isolates from livers, gastrointestinal tracts, spleens and blood were included. The loci analyzed were csa, the major lethal toxin produced by C. septicum, and the housekeeping genes gyrA, groEL, dnaK, recA, tpi, ddl, colA and glpK. These loci were included in part because of their previous use in MLST analysis of Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile. Results indicated a high level of conservation present within these housekeeping gene fragments when compared to what has been previously reported for the aforementioned clostridia. Of the 5352 bp of sequence data examined for each isolate, 99.7% (5335/5352) was absolutely conserved among the 109 isolates. Only one of the ten unique sequence types, or allelic profiles, identified among the isolates was recovered from both turkeys and broiler chickens suggesting some host species preference. Phylogenetic analyses identified two unique clusters, or clonal complexes, among these poultry isolates which may have important epidemiological implications for poultry producers in the United States. This work indicates a predominantly clonal population structure for C. septicum although some evidence of recombination was also observed.

A genomic library of Clostridium septicum NCTC547 strain was made in Escherichia coli by means of lambda gt10. The DNA insert of a hemolysin-positive (Hly+) lambda-clone was transferred into pUC19. The resulting plasmid, pCS21, confers a Hly+ phenotype on E. coli. Crude lysates of E. coli (pCS21) possessed a strong lytic activity on human erythrocytes and also a lethal effect on mice, characteristic of an alpha toxin. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the insert DNA (5.2 kb) in pCS21 included at least one open reading frame of 1380 bp. The coding frame for hemolysin was predicted to be 1329 bp in size and to encode a protein of 49.8 kDa. It coincided with the molecular mass (48 kDa) of the alpha toxin secreted by C. septicum. Taken together, the data indicated that plasmid pCS21 indeed encoded an alpha toxin gene of C. septicum.

The gene for Clostridium septicum alpha-toxin was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli from C. septicum BX96. The toxin was determined to be 443 amino acids in length, with a 31-residue signal peptide that was removed from the toxin during secretion. No extended hydrophobic regions were observed in the mature toxin sequence. Expression of alpha-toxin in E. coli BL21 resulted in the production of ATpro, which was identical to native toxin from C. septicum with respect to activity and activation. The proteolytic activation site for alpha-toxin was determined to be on the carboxy-terminal side of arginine 398, which lies within the sequence KKRRGKR-398SVD. Previous work showing similarities in activation and mechanism between alpha-toxin and Aeromonas hydrophila aerolysin was extended to the primary structures of both toxins. The DNA-derived primary sequence of alpha-toxin exhibited 27% identity and 72% similarity over a 387-residue region with the primary structure of the A. hydrophila aerolysin toxin, a level of similarity heretofore unobserved between toxins produced by a gram-positive organism and a gram-negative organism.