Cyclic diguanylate inversely regulates motility and aggregation in Clostridium difficile.

ABSTRACT: Clostridium difficile-associated disease is increasing in incidence and is costly to treat. Our understanding of how this organism senses its entry into the host and adapts for growth in the large bowel is limited. The small-molecule second messenger cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) has been extensively studied in gram-negative bacteria and has been shown to modulate motility, biofilm formation, and other processes in response to environmental signals, yet little is known about the functions of this signaling molecule in gram-positive bacteria or in C. difficile specifically. In the current study, we investigated the function of the second messenger c-di-GMP in C. difficile. To determine the role of c-di-GMP in C. difficile, we ectopically expressed genes encoding a diguanylate cyclase enzyme

SUBMITTER: Purcell EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3434733 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature