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Case Reports
. 2003 Oct;41(10):4848-51.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.41.10.4848-4851.2003.

Detection of differences in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of diphtheria toxin from Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Corynebacterium ulcerans causing extrapharyngeal infections

Andreas Sing  1 , Michael Hogardt, Suse Bierschenk, Jürgen Heesemann
Affiliations
Case Reports

Detection of differences in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of diphtheria toxin from Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Corynebacterium ulcerans causing extrapharyngeal infections

Andreas Sing et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2003 Oct.

Abstract

While Corynebacterium ulcerans can mimic classical diphtheria, extrapharyngeal infections are extremely rare. Sequencing of the diphtheria toxin (DT)-encoding tox gene of two C. ulcerans isolates from extrapharyngeal infections revealed differences from C. diphtheriae DT sequences, mainly in the translocation and receptor-binding domains. C. ulcerans supernatants were much less potent than supernatant from C. diphtheriae. A C. ulcerans DT-specific PCR is described below.

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References

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