Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Functional characterization of a putative Type IV pilus gene cluster in Clostridium difficile

3^rd International Congress on Bacteriology and Infectious Diseases

August 04-06, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Yi-Tzu Lin and I-Hsiu Huang

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol

Abstract:

Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive anaerobic human pathogen capable of withstanding multiple antibiotics. C. difficile
infections (CDIs) are the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea worldwide. C. difficile exerts its action through the
production of two glycosylating toxins, Toxin A and Toxin B. Similar to many other pathogens, C. difficile has the ability to bind
and colonize the intestinal epithelium, however little is known about cell surface proteins that contributes to its adherence.
Genome analysis of multiple C. difficile strains revealed a putative Type IV pilus gene cluster. Type IV pilus (TFP) is a unique
bacterial appendage that has been reported in many gram-negative bacteria to play an important role in motility, adherence
and biofilm formation. In our study, we aim to characterize the role of TFP in C. difficile pathogenesis. Results indicated that the
TFP gene cluster was expressed constitutively in two toxin-encoding strain of C. difficile. To further investigate the functionality
of TFP in C. difficile, insertional mutations were made in pilA which encodes for putative pilin subunits of TFP and in pilT
which encodes for a putative retraction ATPase associated with TFP disassembly. Interestingly, unlike previously reported in
Clostridium perfringens, TFP in C. difficile did not appear to be involved in twitching motility. We further demonstrated that
TFP was expressed on the C. difficile surface and was involved in biofilm formation. Unexpectedly, preliminary animal studies
indicated that C. difficile mutants lacking TFP was more virulent. We anticipate this study will reveal the function of TFP in C.
difficile and provide alternative target for developing a rapid C. difficile detection method in the future.

Biography :

Yi-Tzu Lin works at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.