Role of zinc in the production of Clostridium perfringens alpha toxin.

Clostridium perfringens was found to produce alpha toxin in a synthetic medium containing zinc; in medium containing no zinc, a little toxin was detected in the early logarithmic phase of growth and it disappeared rapidly. No intracellular accumulation of alpha toxin protein occurred whether or not zinc was present in the medium. In zinc-deficient medium, the organisms produced and released into the surrounding medium the protein specifically precipitable with alpha antitoxin in an amount comparable to that of alpha toxin produced in the zinc-containing medium. The protein combined rapidly in some unknown way with zinc to form the active and stable alpha toxin.