RESEARCH ARTICLE Identification of the replic

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Clostridium perfringens is an important Gram-positive pathogen, but also a member of the normal gastrointes-tinal flora of humans and animals [1]. The pathogenicity of this bacterium to humans and livestock largely de-pends upon toxin production, with 16 different C. per-fringens toxins reported in the literature [1]. Most C. perfringens toxin genes, including three typing toxin (β, ε, ι) genes and recently identified novel toxin genes, such as necrotic enteritis B-like toxin gene (netB) and toxin C. perfringens large cytotoxin gene (tepL), are present on plasmids [2-4]. Therefore, the presence of toxin gene-encoding plasmids is crucial for C. perfringens virulence. For C. perfringens strains producing C. perfringens en-terotoxin (CPE) to cause non-foodborne human intes-tinal disease, they not only have to produce toxins, but also must overcome the normal microbial population so they can grow to pathogenic levels [5]. For this purpose, the production of bacteriocins might be useful [5]. Previ-ous surveys of bacteriocins support this possibility since studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s showed tha