Comparative Genomics of Clostridium difficile

Abstract

Clostridium difficile, a gram-positive spore-forming anaerobic bacterium, has rapidly emerged as the leading cause of nosocomial diarrhoea in hospitals. The availability of genome sequences in large numbers, mainly due to the use of next-generation sequencing methods, have undoubtedly shown their immense advantages in the determination of the C. difficile population structure. The implementation of fine-scale comparative genomic approaches have paved the way to global transmission and recurrence studies, but also more targeted studies such as the PaLoc or the CRISPR/Cas systems. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the recent and significant findings on C. difficile using comparative genomics studies with implication for the epidemiology, infection control and understanding of the evolution of C. difficile.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas; Epidemiology; Evolution; Genomics; Nontoxigenic strains; Recurrence; Transmission.