Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTN

Query: NC_010520:1 Clostridium botulinum A3 str. Loch Maree, complete genome

Lineage: Clostridium botulinum; Clostridium; Clostridiaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria

General Information: Clostridium botulinum A3 str. Loch Maree was isolated from duck liver paste during a botulism outbreak at a hotel in the Scottish highlands in 1922. This was the first and worst outbreak of botulism in the United Kingdom (UK). This organism produces one of the most potent and deadly neurotoxins known, a botulinum toxin that prevents the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby inhibiting muscle contraction and causing paralysis. In most cases the diseased person dies of asphyxiation as a result of paralysis of chest muscles involved in breathing. The spores are heat-resistant and can survive in inadequately heated, prepared, or processed foods. Spores germinate under favorable conditions (anaerobiosis and substrate-rich environment) and bacteria start propagating very rapidly, producing the toxin.Botulinum toxin, and C. botulinum cells, has been found in a wide variety of foods, including canned ones. Almost any food that has a high pH (above 4.6) can support growth of the bacterium. Honey is the most common vehicle for infection in infants. Food poisoning through C. botulinum is the most frequent type of infection caused by this bacterium. The wound botulism that occurs when C. botulinum infects an individual via an open wound is much rarer and is very similar to tetanus disease. There are several types of botulinum toxin known (type A through type F), all of them being neurotoxic polypeptides. The most common and widely distributed are strains and serovars of C. botulinum that produce type A toxin.

Subject: NC_014974:404015 Thermus scotoductus SA-01 chromosome, complete genome

Lineage: Thermus scotoductus; Thermus; Thermaceae; Thermales; Deinococcus-Thermus; Bacteria

General Information: This is a thermophilic, facultatively mixotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacterium. Thermus scotoductus SA-01 was isolated from fissure water in a South African gold mine. This organism is a thermophilic bacterium which was isolated from fissure water in the Witwatersrand Supergroup at a depth of 3.2 km below surface in a South African gold mine. It is a 2.9-billion-year-old formation of low permeability sandstone and shale with minor volcanic units and conglomerates. The ambient temperature of the rock is approximately 60°C. Samples were collected from a freshly mined rock surface and from a water-producing borehole that penetrated 121 m horizontally into the formation at a depth of 3,198 m. T. scotoductus SA-01 is a facultative anaerobe capable of coupling the oxidation of organic substrates to reduction of a wide range of electron acceptors, including nitrate, Fe(III), Mn(IV) or S(0) as terminal electron acceptors.