Clostridia

Peter Dürre, Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany

Published online: July 2007

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020370

Clostridia are strictly anaerobic or moderately aerotolerant bacteria, gaining ATP mostly by substrate-level phosphorylation. A variety of compounds can be degraded and a number of different fermentation pathways are employed. Sophisticated methods for culturing and genetic manipulation are established. Several pathogenic species belong to the genus, however, some of the toxins are used in therapy, research and cosmetic industry. Biotechnologically important are clostridial enzymes, the clostridial solvent production and cancer therapy by recombinant clostridial endospores.

Keywords: bioremediation; endospores; enzymes; solvents; toxins

 References
    book Bahl H and Dürre P (1993) "Clostridia". In: Sahm H (ed.) Biotechnology, 2nd ed. vol. 1, pp. 285–323. Weinheim: VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.
    book Bahl H and Dürre P (eds) (2001) Clostridia. Biotechnology and Medical Applications. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.
    book Buckel W (1990) "Amino acid fermentations: coenzyme B12-dependent and -independent pathways". In: Hauska G and Thauer R (eds) The Molecular Basis of Bacterial Metabolism, pp. 21–30. Heidelberg: Springer.
    book Dürre P (1993) "Transposons in clostridia". In: Woods DR (ed.) The Clostridia and Biotechnology, pp. 227–246. Stoneham MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
    book Dürre P (ed.) (2005) Handbook on Clostridia. Boca Raton FL: CRC Press.
    Lee C-K, Dürre P, Hippe H and Gottschalk G (1987) Screening for plasmids in the genus Clostridium. Archives of Microbiology 148: 107–114.
    book Lund BM and Peck MW (2000) "Clostridium botulinum". In: Lund BM, Baird-Parker AC and Gould GW (eds) The Microbiological Safety and Quality of Foods, pp. 1057–1109. Gaithersburg: Aspen Publ Inc.
    Minton NP (2003) Clostridia in cancer therapy. Nature Reviews in Microbiology 1: 237–242.
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 Further Reading
    Arnon SS, Schechter R, Inglesby TV et al. (2001) Botulinum toxin as a biological weapon: medical and public health management. The Journal of the American Medical Association 285: 1059–1070.
    book Dürre P and Bahl H (1996) "Microbial production of acetone/butanol/isopropanol". Roehr M (ed.) Biotechnology, 2nd edn, vol. 6, pp. 229–268. Weinheim: VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.
    Dürre P (1998) New insights and novel developments in clostridial acetone/butanol/isopropanol fermentation. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 49: 639–648.
    Girbal L and Soucaille P (1998) Regulation of solvent production in Clostridium acetobutylicum. Trends in Biotechnology 16: 11–16.
    Keis S, Shaheen R and Jones DT (2001) Emended descriptions of Clostridium acetobutylicum and Clostridium beijerinckii, and descriptions of Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum sp. nov. and Clostridium saccharobutylicum sp. nov. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 51: 2095–2103.
    book Minton NP and Clarke DJ (eds) (1989) Clostridia. New York: Plenum Press.
    Mitchell WJ (1998) Physiology of carbohydrate to solvent conversion by clostridia. Advances in Microbial Physiology 39: 31–130.
    Paredes CJ, Alsaker KV and Papoutsakis ET (2005) A comparative genomic view of clostridial sporulation and physiology. Nature Reviews in Microbiology 3: 969–978.
    book Woods DR (ed.) (1993) The Clostridia and Biotechnology. Stoneham MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
    Young DI, Evans VJ, Jefferies JR et al. (1999) Genetic methods in clostridia. Methods in Microbiology 29: 191–207.

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Bacteria | Medical Microbiology
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Article Title: Clostridia
 
How to Cite close
Dürre, Peter(Jul 2007) Clostridia. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020370]