Fusion allows the nerve impulse to be delivered across

the synaptic junction. Botulinum neurotoxin G (BoNT/G) is the least studied of the seven serotypes. BoNT/G-producing organisms were first isolated by Gimenez and Ciccarelli in 1969 from soil samples taken from a cornfield in the Mendoza Province of Argentina [4]. The investigators indicated that a novel strain of bacterium produced an antigenically specific, heat-labile botulinum-like toxin that was not neutralized by any of the known botulinum antisera. The antitoxin developed using this strain only neutralized its homologous toxin and showed no activity on any of the other known types of BoNT [4]. Overall, nine strains of type G producing organisms have been isolated, two from Argentina and seven from Switzerland; none of which have ever been clearly implicated Selleck Sotrastaurin as the cause of paralytic illness or death in humans or

animals [5]. Type G organisms are historically associated with the C. botulinum species, because of their ability to produce botulinum neurotoxin [3, 4]. However, it is well known that botulinal toxin production is a poor parameter on which to base species identification and that the C. botulinum species is a taxonomic collection of several distinct species [3, 5–7]. Type/G producing organisms are classified as Clostridium argentinense [5]. This species includes 12 strains of bacteria from the genus Clostridium: nine toxigenic strains and three Poziotinib non-toxigenic strains. These strains are genetically and phenotypically distinct from all other strains of C. botulinum and other clostridial species

[5]. Two of the three non-toxigenic strains were once classified this website as C. subterminale, and the third as C. hastiforme. These strains were often reported to cause serological cross-reactions with type/G producing organisms and the BoNT/G protein in ELISA and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) detection assays [5, 8, 9]. The C. argentinense species can be distinguished from other asaccharolytic, proteolytic clostridia by a biochemical test that detects the production of a unique derivative of indole [5]. However, to avoid confusion among the medical and scientific communities, C. argentinense type/G producing organisms are still referred to as C. botulinum type/G [7]. Type/G toxin is produced in culture as a relatively large protein complex (L complex ~500 kDa) consisting of a neurotoxin (BoNT) and three neurotoxin-associated proteins (NAPs): two hemagglutinins (HA17 and HA70) and a nontoxic-nonhemagglutinin (NTNH) component. In addition, there is a gene expression protein (P21) that is responsible for regulating the expression of the four complex proteins. P21, however, is not associated with the toxin complex itself [10, 11].