Regulation of neurotoxin and protease formation in Clostridium botulinum Okra B and Hall A by arginine

Abstract

Supplementation of a minimal medium with high levels of arginine (20 g/liter) markedly decreased neurotoxin titers and protease activities in cultures of Clostridium botulinum Okra B and Hall A. Nitrogenous nutrients that are known to be derived from arginine, including proline, glutamate, and ammonia, also decreased protease and toxin but less so than did arginine. Proteases synthesized during growth were rapidly inactivated after growth stopped in media containing high levels of arginine. Separation of extracellular proteins by electrophoresis and immunoblots with antibodies to toxin showed that the decrease in toxin titers in media containing high levels of arginine was caused by both reduced synthesis of protoxin and impaired proteolytic activation. In contrast, certain other nutritional conditions stimulated protease and toxin formation in C. botulinum and counteracted the repression by arginine. Supplementation of the minimal medium with casein or casein hydrolysates increased protease activities and toxin titers. Casein supplementation of a medium containing high levels of arginine prevented protease inactivation. High levels of glucose (50 g/liter) also delayed the inactivation of proteases in both the minimal medium and a medium containing high levels of arginine. These observations suggest that the availability of nitrogen and energy sources, particularly arginine, affects the production and proteolytic processing of toxins and proteases in C. botulinum.