Clostridium tetani
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Description and Significance
Clostridium tetani is a rod-shaped, anaerobic, and endospore-forming bacterium that is responsible for the tetanus disease affecting an estimated 350,000 people a year worldwide [1]. Single rods have terminal spherical endospores creating a "clubbed appearence" [2]. This bacterium is gram-positive, a characteristic shared by the other related species belonging to the Clostridium genus. The peptoidoglycan structure of the bacteria's cell wall allow it to retain the violet crystals in a gram stain. The resulting appearence under a microscope is often described as resembling a tennis racket or a collection of drumsticks. The organism is an obligate anaerobe found in soil and most often in animal feces.