A Physician Notices That Several Patients Are Infected with Clostridium

question 4

Multiple Choice

A physician notices that several patients are infected with Clostridium difficile, but only a few of the patients are symptomatic for disease. The reason for this discrepancy is

• A) only those strains of the organism carrying the extrachromosomal DNA coding for the toxin gene will produce toxin and cause the individuals to be symptomatic.
• B) only those strains of the organism carrying DNA coding for the toxin within its main DNA molecule will produce toxin and cause the individuals to be symptomatic.
• C) the exotoxin produced contains only the nontoxic portion.
• D) the exotoxin must be produced in conjunction with extracellular enzymes to cause problems.

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