Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTP

Query: NC_010516:1 Clostridium botulinum B1 str. Okra, complete genome

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

General Information: 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_010729:225616 Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277, complete genome

Lineage: Porphyromonas gingivalis; Porphyromonas; Porphyromonadaceae; Bacteroidales; Bacteroidetes; Bacteria

General Information: This strain was isolated from human gingiva. This organism is associated with severe and chronic periodontal (tissues surrounding and supporting the tooth) diseases. Progression of the disease is caused by colonization by this organism in an anaerobic environment in host tissues and severe progression results in loss of the tissues supporting the tooth and eventually loss of the tooth itself. The black pigmentation characteristic of this bacterium comes from iron acquisition that does not use the typical siderophore system of other bacteria but accumulates hemin. Peptides appear to be the predominant carbon and energy source of this organism, perhaps in keeping with its ability to destroy host tissue. Oxygen tolerance systems play a part in establishment of the organism in the oral cavity, including a superoxide dismutase. Pathogenic factors include extracellular adhesins that mediate interactions with other bacteria as well as the extracellular matrix, and a host of degradative enzymes that are responsible for tissue degradation and spread of the organism including the gingipains, which are trypsin-like cysteine proteases.