Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

eLife

Volume

10

PubMed ID

34114561

Publisher

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

36004

Funders

Raine Medical Research Foundation / National Health and Medical Research Council / Mahidol University, Thailand / EULac project 'Genomic Epidemiology of Clostridium difficile, Latin America / Millennium Science Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism of Chile

Grant Number

NHMRC Number : APP1138257

Grant Link

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1138257

Comments

Knight, D. R., Imwattana, K., Kullin, B., Guerrero-Araya, E., Paredes-Sabja, D., Didelot, X., ... Riley, T. V. (2021). Major genetic discontinuity and novel toxigenic species in Clostridioides difficile taxonomy. eLife, 10, article e64325. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64325

Abstract

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) remains an urgent global One Health threat. The genetic heterogeneity seen across C. difficile underscores its wide ecological versatility and has driven the significant changes in CDI epidemiology seen in the last 20 years. We analysed an international collection of over 12,000 C. difficile genomes spanning the eight currently defined phylogenetic clades. Through whole-genome average nucleotide identity, and pangenomic and Bayesian analyses, we identified major taxonomic incoherence with clear species boundaries for each of the recently described cryptic clades CI–III. The emergence of these three novel genomospecies predates clades C1–5 by millions of years, rewriting the global population structure of C. difficile specifically and taxonomy of the Peptostreptococcaceae in general. These genomospecies all show unique and highly divergent toxin gene architecture, advancing our understanding of the evolution of C. difficile and close relatives. Beyond the taxonomic ramifications, this work may impact the diagnosis of CDI.

DOI

10.7554/eLife.64325

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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