Clostridium botulinum neu2011
Classification
Taxonomic Classification for Clostridium botulinum
Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Firmicutes
Class: Clostridia
Order: Clostridiales
Family: Clostridiaceae
Genus: Clostridium
Species: botulinum
Description
Clostridium botulinum is a rod shaped, gram positive bacteria,that produces heat and chemical resistant endospores. The bacterium is a soil dwelling anaerobe, that produces a known neurotoxin. The symptoms of botulism was first described by Justinus Kerner in the early 1820's. Kerner named the disease botulism after the Latin word for sausage, owing to the fact that much of the food poisoning was attributed to the undercooked breakfast meat.
There are seven identified toxins produced by an equal number of strains of the Clostridium botulinum, types A-G. Each strain when cultured has produced toxins of different specificities.
Genome