Montecucco Cesare, Rasotto Maria Berica
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Department of Biology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
mBio. 2015 Jan 6;6(1):e02131-14. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02131-14.
The rapidly growing number of botulinum neurotoxin sequences poses the problem of the possible evolutionary significance of the variability of these superpotent neurotoxins for toxin-producing Clostridium species. To progress in the understanding of this remarkable phenomenon, we suggest that researchers should (i) abandon an anthropocentric view of these neurotoxins as human botulism-causing agents or as human therapeutics, (ii) begin to investigate in depth the role of botulinum neurotoxins in animal botulism in the wilderness, and (iii) devote large efforts to next-generation sequencing of soil samples to identify novel botulinum neurotoxins. In order to compare the fitness of the different toxins, we suggest that assays of all the steps from toxin production to animal death should be performed.
肉毒杆菌神经毒素序列数量的迅速增长，引发了关于这些超强神经毒素的变异性对于产毒素梭菌物种可能具有的进化意义这一问题。为了在理解这一显著现象方面取得进展，我们建议研究人员应该：（i）摒弃将这些神经毒素视为人源性肉毒中毒致病因子或人类治疗药物的以人类为中心的观点；（ii）开始深入研究肉毒杆菌神经毒素在野外动物肉毒中毒中的作用；（iii）投入大量精力对土壤样本进行新一代测序，以鉴定新型肉毒杆菌神经毒素。为了比较不同毒素的适应性，我们建议对从毒素产生到动物死亡的所有步骤进行测定。
