[thedoc (OP)]

Malcolm Reid asked the Naked Scientists:
   
My inquiry relates to microbial toxins, specifically those produced by the Clostridium Botulinum bacterium. I note that these neurotoxins possess DNA. Does that mean that they are living organisms capable of self-replication?

If they are living organisms containing self-replicating DNA, does that mean that scientists with the same advanced capabilities as those already demonstrated by the J. Craig Venter Institute could, synthesize the DNA of, say, one of the Botulinum Neurotoxins in a laboratory and then implant that harvested genome into a bacterial membrane of another Neurotoxin and then cause them to replicate and grow?

What do you think?

[diethyl]

Seems possible, it will be lady's gospel

[chiralSPO]

I don't think that the toxin itself contains DNA, but the bacteria that produce it do. One could figure out which gene(s) is (are) responsible for the production of botox, and put them into another microbe (maybe people have already figured this out, I don't know)

But why? We already have a microbe that produces botox in large amounts, and is fairly easy to cultivate (where do you think botox comes from now?)