Identification of a divergent botulinum neurotoxin like gene cluster in <i>Furfurilactobacillus</i>
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are among the most potent biological toxins and are traditionally associated with Clostridium species. However, recent discoveries have identified BoNT-like proteins in diverse bacterial genera, revealing an expanding family of neurotoxins with unique evolutionary and functional traits. In this study, we report the identification of a novel BoNT-like gene cluster in Furfurilactobacillus sp. OKN36, encoding a toxin we tentatively designate as "Furfuritoxin". Sequence and structural analyses indicate that Furfuritoxin shares key domains with clostridial neurotoxins, including a light chain zinc metalloprotease domain and heavy chain translocase and binding domains, while exhibiting significant sequence divergence. Phylogenetic analysis places Furfuritoxin within a divergent lineage alongside previously reported BoNT/Wo, suggesting a shared ancestral relationship. Gene neighborhood analysis reveals features shared with other BoNT gene clusters including ORFX-related genes and conjugation-associated elements, indicating horizontal gene transfer may have facilitated its distribution. This study adds to the growing family of BoNT-like toxins, providing insights into their evolution and diversity.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".