title: Comparative nutritional and chemical phenome of Clostridium difficile isolates determined using phenotype microarrays.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea in North America and Europe. The risk of CDI increases significantly in the case where antimicrobial treatment reduces the number of competing bacteria in the gut, thus leading to the increased availability of nutrients and loss of colonization resistance. The objective of this study was to determine comprehensive nutritional utilization and the chemical sensitivity profile of historic and newer C. difficile isolates and to examine the possible role of the phenotype diversity in C. difficile virulence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Phenotype microarrays (PMs) were used to elucidate the complete nutritional and chemical sensitivity profile of six C. difficile isolates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 760 nutrient sources tested, 285 compounds were utilized by at least one strain. Among the C. difficile isolates compared, R20291, a recent hypervirulent outbreak-associated strain, appears to have an expanded nutrient utilization profile when compared to all other strains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The expanded nutritional utilization profile of some newer C. difficile strains could be one of the reasons for infections in patients who are not exposed to the hospital environment or not undergoing antibiotic treatment. This nutritional profile could be used to design tube feeding formulas that reduce the risk of CDI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scaria
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Jenn-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Nicodemus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Useh
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hongxuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Sean P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: McDonough
authors.affiliation: Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Chunhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sobral
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Electronic address: yc42@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Yung-Fu
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000379:methods; D010641:Phenotype
keywords: Clostridium difficile; Metabolism; Phenome; Phenotype; Phenotype microarray