Closing in on the toxic domain through analysis of a variant Clostridium difficile cytotoxin B

Strain 1470 is the standard typing strain for serogroup F of Clostridium difficile containing both toxin genes, toxA-1470 and toxB-1470. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approach to the sequencing of the total toxB-1470 gene identified an open reading frame (ORF) of 7104 nucleotides. In comparison with the previously sequenced toxB of C. difficile VP10463, the toxB-1470 gene has 16 additional nucleotides, 13 within the 5'-untranslated region and three within the coding region. The M(r) of ToxB-1470 is 269,262, with an isoelectric point (IP) of 4.16. The equivalent values for ToxB are M(r) 269,709 and IP 4.13. In comparison with ToxB, ToxB-1470 differs primarily in the N-terminal regi…