Table 1.

Mechanism of action and biologic effects of toxin-encoding genes.^*

Toxin	Gene	Mode of Action	Biologic Activity	Gene Location
Alpha (α)	cpa	Phospholipase C (plc) And sphingomyelinase	Cytotoxic, hemolytic, necrotic, smooth muscle contraction, enteritis	Chromosome
Beta (β)	cpb	Pore-forming activity	Cytotoxic, dermonecrotic, edema, hemorrhagic dysentery, enteritis	Plasmid
Epsilon (ε)	etx	Pore-forming activity and alteration of cellularmembrane permeability	Edema of various organs, smooth muscle contraction, dermonecrotic, enterotoxic, blood pressure elevation	Plasmid
Iota (ι)	iap and ibp	Ia-mediated ADP-ribosylation of G-actin and pore-forming activity	Disruption of actin cytoskeleton and cell membrane, inhibition of smooth muscle contraction, necrotic	Plasmid
Enterotoxin	cpe	Pore-forming activity	Enterotoxic, cytotoxic, erythema, leakage of water and ions, oncosis	Plasmid or Chromosome
Theta (θ)	pfo	Perfringoysin and pore-forming activity	Cholesterol-specific hemolysin, tissue destruction, antiinflammatory	Chromosome
NetB	netB	Pore-forming activity	Necrotic enteritis of poultry, hemolytic gut lesions	Plasmid

^*Table 1 was assembled using previously constructed tables describing the mode of action, biologic activity and location of C. perfringens toxin-encoding genes.^{9,20,26,29,34,38}