Structural determinants of SlpA-mediated phage recognition in Clostridioides difficile.

ABSTRACT: Phage therapy is a promising alternative to antibiotics for treating Clostridioides difficile infections. Despite its fundamental importance, the initial and most critical step of C. difficile phage infection cycle - the precise recognition of a host receptor - remains poorly understood. The surface-layer protein SlpA was previously identified as a general phage receptor in C. difficile, but the molecular determinants of phage-S-layer interactions remain unclear. We investigated the structural features of SlpA required for phage recognition by engineering and expressing modified isoforms in FM2.5 and R20291 ΔslpA strains. By deleting specific SlpA domains and creating chimeric constructs from different isoforms, we assessed the capacity of seven phages to adsorb and infect the complemented

SUBMITTER: Royer ALM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12680318 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature