Abstract
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are produced by diverse members of the Clostridia and result in a flaccid paralysis known as botulism. Exploring the diversity of BoNTs is important for the development of therapeutics and antitoxins. Here we describe a novel, bont-like gene cluster identified in a draft genome assembly for Enterococcus sp. 3G1_DIV0629 by querying publicly available genomic databases. The bont-like gene is found in a gene cluster similar to known bont gene clusters. Protease and binding motifs conserved in known BoNT proteins are present in the newly identified BoNT-like protein; however, it is currently unknown if the BoNT-like protein described here is capable of targeting neuronal cells resulting in botulism.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.