Tag Archives: toxin

  The bacterium Clostridium botulinum produces the world’s most potent poison, which can cause paralysis, labored breathing, and death — it’s called botulism. The same toxin also smooths wrinkles in the skin at low concentrations because nature is weird like that. There’s an approved treatment for botulism, but it’s not …

Biologists at Vanderbilt University have discovered DNA of the black widow spider toxin in the genome of a virus that attacks Wolbachia, a type of symbiotic bacteria that infects a wide range of invertebrate species, like shrimps, spiders and parasitic worms. Electron microphotograph shows two Wolbachia cells that have infected …

Biotechnologists have discovered some horrifying new consequences of lateral gene transfer: a virus that started making the toxin from black widow spider venom, all by itself. This might be the single combination humanity needed least. No matter what the permutation, viruses plus black widows add up to a whole lot …