Genome analysis of the Clostridium difficile phage ΦCD6356, a temperate phage of the Siphoviridae family

Prophage-Stimulated Toxin Production in Clostridium difficile NAP1/027 Lysogens

“…Overall, a putative function could be attributed to 23 of the 55 ORFs (42%), and the best BLAST hits corresponding to gene products identified in strain QCD-37x79 are listed in Table S3 in the supplemental material, along with a second relevant hit from another source, when available (excluding hits from strain QCD63q42). The complete genome sequence of CD6356, the first cos-type temperate Siphoviridae phage described in C. difficile, has recently been published (20). Protein similarity was found between the lysis, lysogeny control, and DNA replication, recombination, and modification modules of phages CD38-2 and CD6356, but their structural genes were unrelated.…”

“…Besides the two prophages that were identified in the genome of C. difficile strain 630 (39), only four phages have been characterized at the molecular level, including complete genome sequencing, namely, CD119 (17), C2 (15), CD27 (34), and CD6356 (20). All of these phages are members of the Myoviridae family (phages with contractile tails), except CD6356, which is the first and only Siphoviridae member (phage with a long noncontractile tail) from C. difficile for which a complete genome sequence is currently available (20). Hence, there is a clear lack of genomic data for this group of phages, especially those of the Siphoviridae family.…”

“…Hence, there is a clear lack of genomic data for this group of phages, especially those of the Siphoviridae family. So far, C. difficile phages have not been found to encode proven virulence factors or to convert nontoxigenic C. difficile isolates into toxin-producing lysogens (15,17,20,34). Nevertheless, two recent studies suggest that phages may somehow contribute to the regulation of toxin production in C. difficile (14,18), but the clear lack of data regarding phages of C. difficile makes it difficult to appreciate the real impact of prophages on C. difficile lifestyle and virulence.…”

Movers and shakers

“…Figure 3 presents a range of tailed phages with lytic activity against the pathogens Clostridium difficile, E. coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella enterica. [34][35][36] Only a few metagenomic studies of the phage community in the human intestine have been performed, but those which have been completed provide a great deal of information regarding the diversity and abundance of phages in the gastrointestinal tract. These studies not only detect phage sequences but also detect eukaryotic viral genomes, for this reason the collective term viral community is used.…”

Bacteriophage Genome Sequencing: A New Alternative to Understand Biochemical Interactions between Prokaryotic Cells and Phages

“…In this way, other omic approaches like transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics could be used in combination with phage genome sequencing to completely understand phage-bacteria interactions [20][21][22][23].…”