title: Genomic diversity of Clostridium difficile strains.
abstract: Approaches to exploring Clostridium difficile genomic diversity have ranged from molecular typing methods to use of comparative genome microarrays and whole genome sequence comparisons. The C. difficile population structure is clonal and distributed into six clades, which correlate well with MLST STs (multilocus sequence types) and PCR ribotypes. However, toxigenic strains and strains with increased virulence are distributed throughout several clades. Here we summarize studies on C. difficile genomic diversity, with emphasis on phylogenetic aspects, epidemiological aspect and variability of some virulence factors.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food, Prvomajska ulica 1, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia. Electronic address: sandra.janezic@nlzoh.si.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Janezic
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food, Prvomajska ulica 1, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia; University of Maribor, Faculty of Medicine, Taborska ulica 8, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia; Centre of Excellence for Integrated Approaches in Chemistry and Biology of Proteins, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: maja.rupnik@nlzoh.si.
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rupnik
mesh_terms: D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D037521:Virulence Factors
keywords: Clades; Clostridium difficile; Diversity; Toxinotyping; WGS