An intact S-layer is advantageous to Clostridioides difficile within the host.

ABSTRACT: Clostridioides difficile is responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality in antibiotically-treated, hospitalised, elderly patients, in which toxin production correlates with diarrhoeal disease. While the function of these toxins has been studied in detail, the contribution of other factors, including the paracrystalline surface layer (S-layer), to disease is less well understood. Here, we highlight the essentiality of the S-layer in vivo by reporting the recovery of S-layer variants, following infection with the S-layer-null strain, FM2.5. These variants carry either correction of the original point mutation, or sequence modifications which restored the reading frame, and translation of slpA. Selection of these variant clones was rapid in vivo, and independent of toxin production, w

SUBMITTER: Ormsby MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10310040 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature