Bacterial toxins

Abstract

Toxins were the first bacterial virulence factors to be identified and were also the first link between bacteria and cell biology. Cellular microbiology was, in fact, naturally born a long time ago with the study of toxins, and only recently, thanks to the sophisticated new technologies, has it expanded to include the study of many other aspects of the interactions between bacteria and host cells. This chapter covers mostly the molecules that have been classically known as toxins; however, the last section also mentions some recently identified molecules that cause cell intoxication and have many but not all of the properties of classical toxins. Tables 22.1 and 22.2 show the known properties of all bacterial toxins described in this chapter, while Fig. 22.1 shows the subunit composition and the spatial organization of toxins whose structures have been solved either by X-ray crystallography or by quick-freeze deep-etch electron microscopy.