Background: Peptoclostridium (Clostridium) difficile is a spore-forming bacterium responsible for nosocomial infections in humans. It is recognized as an important agent of diarrhea and colitis in several animal species and a possible zoonotic agent. Despite the known importance of P. difficile infection in humans and animals, no vaccine or other effective measure to control the disease is commercially available. A possible alternative treatment for P. difficile infection is the use of a nontoxigenic strain of P. difficile as a competitive exclusion agent. However, a thorough knowledge of this strain is necessary for this purpose. We selected P. difficile Z31, a nontoxigenic strain (PCR ribotype 009), for investigation because it prevents P. difficile infection in a hamster model.
Results: The genome sequence of P. difficile Z31 is a circular chromosome of 4298,263 bp, with a 29.21 % GC content, encoding 4128 proteins, and containing 78 pseudogenes. This strain belongs to ST 3, clade 1, and has five phage regions in its genome. Genes responsible for resistance to tetracycline and erythromycin were detected and more importantly, Z31 also contains genes that promote spore production and stability, cell attachment, intestinal adherence, and biofilm formation.
Conclusion: In this study, we present the first complete genome sequence of nontoxigenic P. difficile strain Z31. When the Z31 genome was compared with those of other isolates available in GenBank, including a draft genome of a nontoxigenic strain, several unique regions were evident. Z31 contains no toxin genes, but encodes several non-toxin virulence factors, which may favor host colonization.
Keywords: Competitive exclusion; Genome sequencing; Live vaccine; Peptoclostridium (Clostridium) difficile.