Abstract
An increased incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is associated with the emergence of epidemic strains characterized by high genetic diversity. Among the factors that may have a role in CDI is a family of 29 paralogues, the cell-wall proteins (CWPs), which compose the outer layer of the bacterial cell and are likely to be involved in colonization. Previous studies have shown that 12 of the 29 cwp genes are clustered in the same region, named after slpA (cwp1), the slpA locus, whereas the remaining 17 paralogues are distributed throughout the genome. The variability of 14 of these 17 cwp paralogues was determined in 40 C. difficile clinical isolates belonging to six of the currently prevailing PCR ribotypes. Based on sequence conservation, these cwp genes were divided into two groups, one comprising nine cwp loci having highly conserved sequences in all isolates, and the other five loci showing low genetic conservation among isolates of the same PCR ribotype, as well as between different PCR ribotypes. Three conserved CWPs, Cwp16, Cwp18 and Cwp25, and two variable ones, Cwp26 and Cwp27, were characterized further by Western blot analysis of total cell extracts or surface-layer preparations of the C. difficile clinical isolates. Expression of genetically invariable CWPs was well conserved in all isolates, whilst genetically variable CWPs were not always expressed at comparable levels, even in strains containing identical sequences but belonging to different PCR ribotypes. This is the first report on the distribution and variability of a number of genes encoding CWPs in C. difficile.
Highlights
1.1 Clostridium difficile : general featuresClostridium difficile is a spore-forming, Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium and is the most common cause of nosocomial infectious diarrhea
We have analysed the distribution of 14 cwp genes in 40 clinical isolates and their conservation with respect to strain 630, we focused on the characterisation of the in vitro expression of Cwp proteins and on the analysis of expression of Cwp proteins in vivo using a protein microarray approach
The observation that the emergence of new C. difficile strains is associated with an increased incidence and virulence of C. difficile infection (CDI) suggests that strain differences play an important role in the onset and subsequent outcome of disease
Summary
Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming, Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacterium and is the most common cause of nosocomial infectious diarrhea. It is found in the commensal flora of 3% of the adults and 24 % of patients in hospitals (Gould and McDonald 2008). Since the 1970s this species is recognized as a cause of human gastrointestinal infection, and now is known to cause the most frequent healthcare-acquired infectious diarrhea in developed countries (Voth and Ballard 2005; Barbut, Gariazzo et al 2007). C. difficile infection (CDI) shows different clinical symptoms, ranging from uncomplicated asymptomatic carriage and mild diarrhea to life-threatening toxic megacolon and pseudomembranous colitis (PMC) requiring surgical intervention (Barbut, Gariazzo et al 2007). A thorough analysis of strains from different sources and geographical regions shows significant microdiversity of clonal complexes demonstrating the evolution of C. difficile (Cairns, Stabler et al 2012)
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