ArticleScientific reports2025
The phi027 bacteriophage influences physiology and virulence of the lysogenic strain of Clostridioides difficile.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbiome-based therapeutics forGut microbes · 2026Review
- From colonization to infection: Genomic evolution of Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis.Cell reports · 2026Review
- Protecting Newborns from Multidrug-Resistant Infections: The Emerging Role of Bacteriophages.Viruses · 2026Review
- Isolation and Characterization of Clostridioides difficile Bacteriophages.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Clostridioides difficile, the causative agent of C. difficile infections (CDI), can be naturally infected by bacterial viruses known as bacteriophages. All characterized bacteriophages of this bacterium are temperate, meaning that upon infection their genetic material integrates and replicates with host's genome. Such lysogenic strains can exhibit altered physiology and virulence, which in turn can be an important factor for epidemiology of CDI. In this study we characterized the phiCDKH02 bacteriophage infecting clinical isolates of C. difficile belonging to hypervirulent ribotypes 027 and 176. The bacteriophage was found to be identical to phi027. To get some insight into the role of this bacteriophage in physiology of its host and interaction with human colon cells, we made use of CRISPR-Cpf1 technology to cure the lysogenic C. difficile of the prophage. The prophage-free strain exhibited altered sporulation efficiency, lowered adhesion and decreased cytopathic effects towards human colon cells associated with decreased production of TcdB. These results emphasize importance of prophages in shaping virulence of C. difficile.
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