Clostridium botulinum, a spore-forming anaerobic bacterium produces seven serologically and antigenically distinct neurotoxins (A-G): A, B, C (C alpha), D, E, F, and G. Strains representing the seven serotypes are divided into four physiological groups: group I (A, B, F), group II (B, E, F), group III (C, D), and group IV (G).
While serotypes A, B, E and F are typically associated with human botulism, serotypes C and D are known to cause animal botulism. However, a few unusual cases of infant botulism caused by serotype C (Oguma et al. 1990, PMID:
1978909) and foodborne botulism caused by serotype D (Demarchi et al. 1958, PMID:
13560962) have been documented. In addition, although serotype G is not known to cause human botulism, there have been several cases of suspicious deaths where BoNT/G was isolated (Sonnabend et al. 1981, PMID:
7012244).
Clostox, a toxin and neurotoxon associated protein (NAP) database, is a collection of all publicly available Clostridium botulinum toxin and NAPs sequences irrespective to their association with a genome project. Each entry includes the associated GenBank and JCVI manually curated data, all synonymous accessions, and any relevant PMIDs. Each entry is grouped by organism subtype and serotype with an associated gene page displaying this information. Development Clostox tools and displays is currently underway, along with continued cur ation of Clostox data.
