Bacterial Toxigenesis
Food Toxicology
Instructor: Gregory Möller, Ph.D.
University of Idaho
Learning Objectives
• Define bacterial toxigenesis.
• Explore bacterial toxins, their background and nomenclature.
• Differentiate exotoxins and endotoxins.
• Explore the toxicity, properties, and mode of action of exotoxins.
• Understand the toxicity,
properties, and mode of action
of endotoxins (pyrogens).
• Understand the origins of sepsis.
• Review the detection of
endotoxins. Bacterial Toxigenesis
• The ability to produce toxins:
a mechanism of bacterial disease.
• Cell-associated lipopolysaccharide (LPS) toxins are referred to as
endotoxins.
• Extracellular diffusible toxins are referred to as exotoxins.
Bacterial Toxins
• ‘[Substances] that are toxic to eukaryotic cells as measured in a
variety of ways’, Orndorff 1992
• ‘A microbial substance able to induce host damage’, Madigan et al.
1997
• ‘Any organic microbial product
or substance that is harmful
or lethal to cells, tissue cultures,
or organisms’, Atlas 1995
Bacterial Toxins
• ‘[Toxins are] a common and series cause of tissue damage,
especially in bacterial infection’, Mims et al. 1993;
• ‘Disease is frequently determined by production of microbial
toxins’, Murray et al. 1994
