Authors
Richard A Stabler, Miao He, Lisa Dawson, Melissa Martin, Esmeralda Valiente, Craig Corton, Trevor D Lawley, Mohammed Sebaihia, Michael A Quail, Graham Rose, Dale N Gerding, Maryse Gibert, Michel R Popoff, Julian Parkhill, Gordon Dougan, Brendan W Wren
Publication date
2009/9
Journal
Genome biology
Volume
10
Pages
1-15
Publisher
BioMed Central
Description
Background
The continued rise of Clostridium difficile infections worldwide has been accompanied by the rapid emergence of a highly virulent clone designated PCR-ribotype 027. To understand more about the evolution of this virulent clone, we made a three-way genomic and phenotypic comparison of an 'historic' non-epidemic 027 C. difficile (CD196), a recent epidemic and hypervirulent 027 (R20291) and a previously sequenced PCR-ribotype 012 strain (630).
Results
Although the genomes are highly conserved, the 027 genomes have 234 additional genes compared to 630, which may contribute to the distinct phenotypic differences we observe between these strains relating to motility, antibiotic resistance and toxicity. The epidemic 027 strain has five unique genetic regions, absent from both the non-epidemic 027 and strain 630, which include a …
Total citations
Scholar articles
RA Stabler, M He, L Dawson, M Martin, E Valiente… - Genome biology, 2009