Open AccessCharacterization of polymorphisms in the toxin A and B genes of Clostridium difficile
Author(s) -
Rupnik Maja,
Braun Veit,
Soehn Florian,
Janc Miha,
Hofstetter Monika,
LaufenbergFeldmann Rita,
EichelStreiber Christoph
Publication year - 1997
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 - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1997.tb10288.x
Subject(s) - clostridium difficile , microbiology and biotechnology , toxin , clostridium difficile toxin a , clostridium difficile toxin b , gene , biology , clostridiaceae , genetics , antibiotics
We have used six independent polymerase chain reactions (A1–A3 and B1–B3) for amplification of the entire sequence of the two toxin genes tcdA and tcdB of several Clostridium difficile strains. With this approach we have detected (1) restriction site polymorphisms which are distributed all over the genes, and (2) deletions that could be found only in tcdA . Characteristic differences between strains were mainly focused to the 5′ third of tcdB (B1 fragment) and/or the 3′ third of tcdA (A3 fragment). The possible use of our approach for typing of C. difficile toxin genes is discussed.