Bacteriophages of Clostridium botulinum

Abstract

Temperate bacteriophages of diverse morphology were demonstrated by electron microscopy in toxigenic cultures of Clostridium botulinum. The 41 strains examined included 23 type E and multiple representatives of all other types. Cultures induced with mitomycin-C generally gave better yields, but phages were also demonstrable in untreated cultures.A provisional grouping of toxigenic types into four categories is suggested, based mainly upon associated phage patterns. Group 1 comprises types A, B, and F (all proteolytic), many of whose cultures showed an icosahedral contractile phage; others contained a "bullrushy" phage with elongated head and long flexible tail; some strains yielded both. Group 2, types B and F (non-proteolytic), were associated with icosahedral contractile phages; the latter also had an octahedral flexible phage. Group 3, types C and D, yielded conspicuously large phages with octahedral heads and very long sheathed tails. One type C strain produced a long-tailed icosahedral phage. Type E phages constituted group 4. These were icosahedral with tails generally contracted but sometimes flexible, often accompanied by superfluous sheathed tail-like structures resembling certain bacteriocins. Although non-toxigenic "OS" mutants of types A, B, E, and F were phageless, two non-toxic type E strains yielded phages. The possible role of lysogeny in the toxigenicity of certain types of this species is likely to prove difficult to elucidate.

Numerical Taxonomy of Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium sporogenes Strains, and Their Susceptibilities to Induced Lysins and to Mitomycin C

“…Dolman and Chang [4], and Inoue and Iida [7] reported that strains selected arbitrarily from all types of C. botulinum produced phage particles in the culture through cellular lysis after the bacteria were treated with mitomycin C or UV irradiation. On the other hand, Betz and Anderson [3] could not detect any lysogenic strain among 25 strains of C. sporogenes examined.…”

KM1, a Bacteriophage of Clostridium butyricum

“…In contrast, phage 5 has an elongated head and a flexible, sheathless tail resembling phages which infect C. sporogenes (Betz, 1968;Beatriz et al, 1981) or several strains of proteolytic types of C. botulinum (Eklund et al, 1969;Dolman & Chang, 1972).…”

Clostridium botulinumandClostridium tetani

“…Many clostridia including neurotoxigenic species have been demonstrated to harbor bacteriophages (Dolman and Chang 1972;Eklund et al 1976Eklund et al , 1989Inoue and Iida 1968;Ogata and Hongo 1979). Research groups in the United States and in Japan demonstrated that bacteriophages mediated toxin production in C. botulinum types C and D (reviewed in Eklund et al 1989;Johnson 1997).…”