The pathogenesis of Clostridium perfringens

Description of projects available to graduate students:
1) Molecular epidemiologic analyses of C. perfringens food poisoning reservoirs: C. perfringens food poisoning is the 3rd most common foodborne illness in the USA but the reservoir for the isolates causing this disease are poorly understood. A student can help explore the presence of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens isolates in humans, store-bought foods, and the food processing environment.

2) The mechanism of action of C. perfringens enterotoxin: symptoms of C. perfringens food poisning are caused by an enterotoxin. This toxin acts by forming a series of complexes in plasma membranes of mammalian cells. We are currently exploring the composition of these complexes.

3) Analysis of C. perfringens virulence plasmids: A student has the opportunity to participate in the cloning and sequencing of the large virulence plasmids encoding such toxins as the enterotoxin, beta toxin, and epsilon toxin.

Techniques graduate student will learn:
Depending on the project chosen, graduate
students can learn Western blotting, Southern blotting, PCR, analyses of protein complexes, tissue culture, cytotoxicity assays,and recombinant DNA techniques.