Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.

Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of hospital acquired diarrhoea in industrialised countries. Under conditions that are not favourable for growth, the pathogen produces metabolically dormant endospores via asymmetric cell division. These are extremely resistant to both chemical and physical...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marcin Dembek, Richard A Stabler, Adam A Witney, Brendan W Wren, Neil F Fairweather
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064011&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850224822094659584
author Marcin Dembek
Richard A Stabler
Adam A Witney
Brendan W Wren
Neil F Fairweather
author_facet Marcin Dembek
Richard A Stabler
Adam A Witney
Brendan W Wren
Neil F Fairweather
author_sort Marcin Dembek
collection DOAJ
description Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of hospital acquired diarrhoea in industrialised countries. Under conditions that are not favourable for growth, the pathogen produces metabolically dormant endospores via asymmetric cell division. These are extremely resistant to both chemical and physical stress and provide the mechanism by which C. difficile can evade the potentially fatal consequences of exposure to heat, oxygen, alcohol, and certain disinfectants. Spores are the primary infective agent and must germinate to allow for vegetative cell growth and toxin production. While spore germination in Bacillus is well understood, little is known about C. difficile germination and outgrowth. Here we use genome-wide transcriptional analysis to elucidate the temporal gene expression patterns in C. difficile 630 endospore germination. We have optimized methods for large scale production and purification of spores. The germination characteristics of purified spores have been characterized and RNA extraction protocols have been optimized. Gene expression was highly dynamic during germination and outgrowth, and was found to involve a large number of genes. Using this genome-wide, microarray approach we have identified 511 genes that are significantly up- or down-regulated during C. difficile germination (p≤0.01). A number of functional groups of genes appeared to be co-regulated. These included transport, protein synthesis and secretion, motility and chemotaxis as well as cell wall biogenesis. These data give insight into how C. difficile re-establishes its metabolism, re-builds the basic structures of the vegetative cell and resumes growth.
format Article
id doaj-art-1444389161a84438b7c3af0031d7ea07
institution OA Journals
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2013-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-1444389161a84438b7c3af0031d7ea072025-08-20T02:05:32ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0185e6401110.1371/journal.pone.0064011Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.Marcin DembekRichard A StablerAdam A WitneyBrendan W WrenNeil F FairweatherClostridium difficile is the leading cause of hospital acquired diarrhoea in industrialised countries. Under conditions that are not favourable for growth, the pathogen produces metabolically dormant endospores via asymmetric cell division. These are extremely resistant to both chemical and physical stress and provide the mechanism by which C. difficile can evade the potentially fatal consequences of exposure to heat, oxygen, alcohol, and certain disinfectants. Spores are the primary infective agent and must germinate to allow for vegetative cell growth and toxin production. While spore germination in Bacillus is well understood, little is known about C. difficile germination and outgrowth. Here we use genome-wide transcriptional analysis to elucidate the temporal gene expression patterns in C. difficile 630 endospore germination. We have optimized methods for large scale production and purification of spores. The germination characteristics of purified spores have been characterized and RNA extraction protocols have been optimized. Gene expression was highly dynamic during germination and outgrowth, and was found to involve a large number of genes. Using this genome-wide, microarray approach we have identified 511 genes that are significantly up- or down-regulated during C. difficile germination (p≤0.01). A number of functional groups of genes appeared to be co-regulated. These included transport, protein synthesis and secretion, motility and chemotaxis as well as cell wall biogenesis. These data give insight into how C. difficile re-establishes its metabolism, re-builds the basic structures of the vegetative cell and resumes growth.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064011&type=printable
spellingShingle Marcin Dembek
Richard A Stabler
Adam A Witney
Brendan W Wren
Neil F Fairweather
Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
PLoS ONE
title Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
title_full Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
title_fullStr Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
title_full_unstemmed Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
title_short Transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating Clostridium difficile 630 endospores.
title_sort transcriptional analysis of temporal gene expression in germinating clostridium difficile 630 endospores
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064011&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT marcindembek transcriptionalanalysisoftemporalgeneexpressioningerminatingclostridiumdifficile630endospores
AT richardastabler transcriptionalanalysisoftemporalgeneexpressioningerminatingclostridiumdifficile630endospores
AT adamawitney transcriptionalanalysisoftemporalgeneexpressioningerminatingclostridiumdifficile630endospores
AT brendanwwren transcriptionalanalysisoftemporalgeneexpressioningerminatingclostridiumdifficile630endospores
AT neilffairweather transcriptionalanalysisoftemporalgeneexpressioningerminatingclostridiumdifficile630endospores