Think-Pair-Share Questions

Botulism is caused by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that is found in the intestinal tract of many grazing animals and is an obligate anaerobe. When growing at a near neutral pH, the bacterium synthesizes and secretes an exotoxin that prevents acetylcholine from being released from the neural motor end plate of neurons at the synapse between the neuron and the muscle to be stimulated. As a result, the affected muscles don't contract or contract very weakly.

A person grows some green beans in a garden fertilized with manure. The beans are washed, boiled, placed in glass jars, and sealed with a lid. A couple of months later, that person heats one of the jars of beans, eats them, contracts botulism, and dies of respiratory failure.

Thinking of what we know about the genus Clostridium, its oxygen requirements, where it normally lives, and what its exotoxin does, explain the sequence of events that led to the person contracting botulism and dying.