Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy.
Clostridioides difficile is a gastrointestinal pathogen of both humans and agricultural animals and thus a major One Health threat. The C. difficile species consists of five main clades, with Clade 5 currently undergoing speciation from Clades 1-4. Since Clade 5 strains are highly prevalent in agric...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-05-01
|
| Series: | PLoS Pathogens |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013155 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849331681144602624 |
|---|---|
| author | John W Ribis César Nieto Nicholas V DiBenedetto Anchal Mehra Pola Kuhn Qiwen Dong Irene Nagawa Imane El Meouche Bree B Aldridge Mary J Dunlop Rita Tamayo Abhyudai Singh Aimee Shen |
| author_facet | John W Ribis César Nieto Nicholas V DiBenedetto Anchal Mehra Pola Kuhn Qiwen Dong Irene Nagawa Imane El Meouche Bree B Aldridge Mary J Dunlop Rita Tamayo Abhyudai Singh Aimee Shen |
| author_sort | John W Ribis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Clostridioides difficile is a gastrointestinal pathogen of both humans and agricultural animals and thus a major One Health threat. The C. difficile species consists of five main clades, with Clade 5 currently undergoing speciation from Clades 1-4. Since Clade 5 strains are highly prevalent in agricultural animals and a frequent cause of zoonotic infections, these strains may have evolved phenotypes that distinguish them from Clade 1-4 strains. Here, we compare the growth properties of Clade 5 strains to those of Clade 1-4 strains using anaerobic time-lapse microscopy coupled with automated image analysis. Our analyses indicate that Clade 5 strains grow faster and are more likely to form long chains of cells than Clade 1-4 strains. Using comparative genomic and CRISPRi analyses, we show that the chaining phenotype of Clade 5 strains is driven by the orientation of the invertible cmr switch sequence, with chaining strains exhibiting a bias to the cmr-ON state. Interestingly, Clade 5 strains with a bias towards the cmr-ON state shifted to a largely cmr-OFF state during murine infection, suggesting that the cmr-OFF state is under positive selection during infection. Collectively, our data reveal that Clade 5 strains have distinct growth properties, which may allow them to inhabit diverse ecological niches. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-69a3099835a3470e97f1e9c586776667 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1553-7366 1553-7374 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Pathogens |
| spelling | doaj-art-69a3099835a3470e97f1e9c5867766672025-08-20T03:46:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Pathogens1553-73661553-73742025-05-01215e101315510.1371/journal.ppat.1013155Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy.John W RibisCésar NietoNicholas V DiBenedettoAnchal MehraPola KuhnQiwen DongIrene NagawaImane El MeoucheBree B AldridgeMary J DunlopRita TamayoAbhyudai SinghAimee ShenClostridioides difficile is a gastrointestinal pathogen of both humans and agricultural animals and thus a major One Health threat. The C. difficile species consists of five main clades, with Clade 5 currently undergoing speciation from Clades 1-4. Since Clade 5 strains are highly prevalent in agricultural animals and a frequent cause of zoonotic infections, these strains may have evolved phenotypes that distinguish them from Clade 1-4 strains. Here, we compare the growth properties of Clade 5 strains to those of Clade 1-4 strains using anaerobic time-lapse microscopy coupled with automated image analysis. Our analyses indicate that Clade 5 strains grow faster and are more likely to form long chains of cells than Clade 1-4 strains. Using comparative genomic and CRISPRi analyses, we show that the chaining phenotype of Clade 5 strains is driven by the orientation of the invertible cmr switch sequence, with chaining strains exhibiting a bias to the cmr-ON state. Interestingly, Clade 5 strains with a bias towards the cmr-ON state shifted to a largely cmr-OFF state during murine infection, suggesting that the cmr-OFF state is under positive selection during infection. Collectively, our data reveal that Clade 5 strains have distinct growth properties, which may allow them to inhabit diverse ecological niches.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013155 |
| spellingShingle | John W Ribis César Nieto Nicholas V DiBenedetto Anchal Mehra Pola Kuhn Qiwen Dong Irene Nagawa Imane El Meouche Bree B Aldridge Mary J Dunlop Rita Tamayo Abhyudai Singh Aimee Shen Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. PLoS Pathogens |
| title | Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. |
| title_full | Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. |
| title_fullStr | Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. |
| title_short | Unique growth and morphology properties of Clade 5 Clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single-cell time-lapse microscopy. |
| title_sort | unique growth and morphology properties of clade 5 clostridioides difficile strains revealed by single cell time lapse microscopy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013155 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT johnwribis uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT cesarnieto uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT nicholasvdibenedetto uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT anchalmehra uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT polakuhn uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT qiwendong uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT irenenagawa uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT imaneelmeouche uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT breebaldridge uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT maryjdunlop uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT ritatamayo uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT abhyudaisingh uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy AT aimeeshen uniquegrowthandmorphologypropertiesofclade5clostridioidesdifficilestrainsrevealedbysinglecelltimelapsemicroscopy |