The influence of pH on the transcription of cpb2 of Clostridium perfringens

Abstract

Research has shown that the correlation of cpb2 is strong in cases of porcine enteritis (85%), especially from cases of neonatal porcine enteritis (91.8%). This suggests that the β2-toxin is involved in the pathogenesis of enteritis by C. perfringens type A. In other animal species a correlation exists, but it is not that strong. The toxin production occurs only under certain circumstances, but the environmental conditions that lead to changes in the expression of cpb2 are not clarified. In Western Blot analysis differences in the amount of β2-toxin production were measured after growing the bacteria under different pH conditions. Our hypothesis is that the transcription of cpb2 is influenced by the pH in the environment of the bacteria. The aim of this study was to verify this hypothesis using the Quantitative-PCR technique, in order to measure the relative transcription of cpb2 compared to the gene encoding for gyrase (reference gene). Our provisional results demonstrate that the relative transcription of cpb2 is influenced by the pH; the transcription of cpb2 is higher at pH 7 compared to that at pH 5. This suggests that the transcription of cpb2 is pH dependent.