Open AccessGene transfer into Clostridium difficile CD630 and characterisation of its methylase genes
Author(s) -
Herbert Michael,
O'Keeffe Triona A.,
Purdy Des,
Elmore Michael,
Minton Nigel P.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1016/s0378-1097(03)00795-x
Subject(s) - clostridia , biology , clostridium difficile , gene , in silico , genetics , shuttle vector , genome , plasmid , strain (injury) , horizontal gene transfer , methylation , escherichia coli , clostridium , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , vector (molecular biology) , recombinant dna , anatomy , antibiotics
Ignorance of pathogenesis in Clostridium difficile may be attributable to a lack of effective genetic tools. We have now shown that oriT ‐based shuttle vectors may be conjugated from Escherichia coli donors to the C. difficile strain CD630, at frequencies of around 10 −6 transconjugants per donor cell. Transfer is unaffected by either sequences present on the vector or its methylation status. Whilst the genome of this strain carries five methylase genes, there is no in silico or experimental evidence for cognate restriction enzymes. It would seem that the identified methylases do not participate in restriction‐modification, and must, therefore, fulfil another role. A similar situation most likely applies to other clostridia.