Hypervirulent clade 2, ribotype 019/sequence type 67 Clostridioides difficile strain from Japan

• Published in: Gut pathogens Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 54
• Main Authors: Saito, Ryoichi, Usui, Yukino, Ayibieke, Alafate, Nakajima, Jun, Prah, Isaac, Sonobe, Kazunari, Aiso, Yoshibumi, Ito, Shiori, Itsui, Yasuhiro, Hadano, Yoshiro, Nukui, Yoko, Koike, Ryuji, Tohda, Shuji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.11.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Antibacterial agents; Antiprotozoan agents; Clostridioides difficile; Genomes; Genomics; Hypervirulent clade 2; Metronidazole; Ribotype 019; Sequence type 67; Short Report; Toxin A; Toxin B; Vancomycin; Japan; Hypervirulent clade 2; Toxin A; Binary toxin; Cdt locus; Ribotype 019; Toxin B; Sequence type 67; Clostridioides difficile; Pathogenicity locus
• ISSN: 1757-4749; 1757-4749
• DOI: 10.1186/s13099-019-0336-3

ribotype (RT) 019/sequence type (ST) 67 strains belong to a hypervirulent lineage closely related to RT027/ST1; however, limited data are available for hypervirulent clade 2 lineages in Japan. Herein, we report the draft genome of a strain B18-123 belonging to clade 2, RT019/ST67 for the first time in Japan. The pathogenicity locus carried by B18-123 (19.6 kb) showed higher homology (97.29% nucleotide identity) with strain R20291 (RT027/ST1) than the reference strain 630 (RT012/ST54), and B18-123 harbored 8-nucleotide substitutions in . However, it did not contain an 18-base pair (bp) deletion or a single-bp deletion at position 117 in , which was identified in the previous strain R20291. A cytotoxicity assay revealed similar cytotoxicity levels between strains B18-123 and ATCC BAA-1870 (RT027/ST1). The B18-123 strain was found to be susceptible to metronidazole and vancomycin. Our findings contribute to the further understanding of the characteristics of hypervirulent clade 2 including RT019/ST67 lineages.