Identification of type A, B, E, and F botulinum neurotoxin genes and of botulinum neurotoxigenic clostridia by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography.

Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) is a recently developed technique for rapid screening of nucleotide polymorphisms in PCR products. We used this technique for the identification of type A, B, E, and F botulinum neurotoxin genes. PCR products amplified from a conserved region of the type A, B, E, and F botulinum toxin genes from Clostridium botulinum, neurotoxigenic C.

Taxonomic identity of type E botulinum toxin-producing Clostridium butyricum strains by sequencing of a short 16S rDNA region.

Several micro-organisms capable of producing botulinum neurotoxin type E, though phenotypically similar to Clostridium butyricum (a normally non-neurotoxigenic organism), have recently been isolated in Italy and China. Some of these micro-organisms had been implicated in food-borne botulism, a serious neuroparalytic disease. The taxonomic identity of the type E botulinum toxin-producing strains is confirmed here, through sequencing of a genus- and species-specific segment of the 16S rRNA gene.

Transferable tetracycline resistance in Listeria monocytogenes from food in Italy.

Mechanisms of tetracycline resistance were investigated in two recent Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food, with L. innocua 52P tet(r) as a control. Tetracycline resistance was transferred conjugatively from all three strains to L.