Nontoxigenic Clostridium botulinum strains and uses thereof

摘要

A mutant strain of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum having an inactivated botulinal neurotoxin gene is disclosed. The mutant strain contains an artificially created and inserted modified intron vector between nucleotides 580 and 581 of the sense strand of the gene. The mutant strain can be used in microbiological challenge testing of foods and food processing methods.