title: Mobile genetic elements in Clostridium difficile and their role in genome function.
abstract: Approximately 11% the Clostridium difficile genome is made up of mobile genetic elements which have a profound effect on the biology of the organism. This includes transfer of antibiotic resistance and other factors that allow the organism to survive challenging environments, modulation of toxin gene expression, transfer of the toxin genes themselves and the conversion of non-toxigenic strains to toxin producers. Mobile genetic elements have also been adapted by investigators to probe the biology of the organism and the various ways in which these have been used are reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK. Electronic address: p.mullany@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mullany
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK. Electronic address: e.allan@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LD, UK. Electronic address: adam.roberts@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000235:genetics*; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins
keywords: Bacteriophage; Conjugative transposon; Horizontal gene transfer; PaLoc; Tn5397; Tn916