MreE (PBP2) variants facilitate clinical disease during cephalosporin exposures.

Cephalosporins are the most common triggers of healthcare-associated infections (CDI). Here, we confirm gene-level drivers of cephalosporin resistance and their roles in promoting disease. Genomic-epidemiologic analyses of 306 isolates from a hospital surveillance program monitoring asymptomatic carriers and CDI patients identified prevalent third-generation cephalosporin resistance to ceftriaxone at >256 ug/mL in 26% of isolates.

Practical observations on the use of fluorescent reporter systems in Clostridioides difficile.

Fluorescence microscopy is a valuable tool to study a broad variety of bacterial cell components and dynamics thereof. For Clostridioides difficile, the fluorescent proteins CFP, mCherry and phiLOV2.1, and the self-labelling tags SNAP and HaloTag, hereafter collectively referred as fluorescent systems, have been described to explore different cellular pathways.

Identification of the Unwinding Region in the Chromosomal Origin of Replication.

Faithful DNA replication is crucial for viability of cells across all kingdoms. Targeting DNA replication is a viable strategy for inhibition of bacterial pathogens. is an important enteropathogen that causes potentially fatal intestinal inflammation.

The C-Terminal Domain of Clostridioides difficile TcdC Is Exposed on the Bacterial Cell Surface.

is an anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium that can produce the large clostridial toxins toxin A and toxin B, encoded within the pathogenicity locus (PaLoc). The PaLoc also encodes the sigma factor TcdR, which positively regulates toxin gene expression, and TcdC, which is a putative negative regulator of toxin expression. TcdC is proposed to be an anti-sigma factor; however, several studies failed to show an association between the genotype and toxin production.

The Bacterial Chromatin Protein HupA Can Remodel DNA and Associates with the Nucleoid in Clostridium difficile.

The maintenance and organization of the chromosome plays an important role in the development and survival of bacteria. Bacterial chromatin proteins are architectural proteins that bind DNA and modulate its conformation, and by doing so affect a variety of cellular processes. No bacterial chromatin proteins of Clostridium difficile have been characterized to date.

Interspecies Interactions between and .

The facultative anaerobic polymorphic fungus and the strictly anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium are two opportunistic pathogens residing in the human gut. While a few studies have focused on the prevalence of in -infected patients, the nature of the interactions between these two microbes has not been studied thus far. In the current study, both chemical and physical interactions between and were investigated.

The Signal Sequence of the Abundant Extracellular Metalloprotease PPEP-1 Can Be Used to Secrete Synthetic Reporter Proteins in Clostridium difficile.

Clostridium difficile is an opportunistic pathogen and the main cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Adherence of C. difficile to host cells is modulated by proteins present on the bacterial cell surface or secreted into the environment.