BioProject

Clostridium sordellii is an anaerobic bacterium associated with rare but severe infections of man and animals. More...

Clostridium sordellii is an anaerobic bacterium associated with rare but severe infections of man and animals. Human infections are associated with trauma, toxic shock and often-fatal gynaecological infections. Some strains are known to produce the large clostridial cytotoxins TcsH and TcsLH, relatives of the cytotoxins found in C. difficile, C. novyi and C. perfringens. We have undertaken a genomic analysis of a collection of C. sordellii strains derived from cases of clinical or veterinary disease. Phylogenetic analysis reveals a highly genetically diverse species. The majority of strains do not encode tcsL or tcsH, but all strains encode the putative virulence factors sordellilysin, phospholipase C and neuraminidase. Where tcsL or tcsH are present, these are localised on a plasmid. Large scale sequencing on this neglected pathogen has to date been limited, these genomes will facilitate further research on this important pathogen. Less...