Draft Genome Sequence of a Clostridium botulinum Isolate from Water Used for Cooling at a Plant Producing Low-Acid Canned Foods

Abstract

Clostridium botulinum is a pathogen of concern for low-acid canned foods. Here we report draft genomes of a neurotoxin-producing C. botulinum strain isolated from water samples used for cooling low-acid canned foods at a canning facility. The genome sequence confirmed that this strain belonged to C. botulinum serotype B1, albeit with major differences, including thousands of unique single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) compared to other genomes of the same serotype.

Comparison of assembled Clostridium botulinum A1 genomes revealed their evolutionary relationship

“…The Group I bivalent strains, Bf and Ba, share the same large clade with the Group I strains, but are relatively more distal from the rest of the group. The recently isolated bivalent strains CFSAN001627 and CFSAN001628 produce two different toxins, A/B and A/F, respectively [Basavanna, 2013], and can be seen to cluster with Group I strains (Fig. 1A).…”