Genetic Determinants of Trehalose Utilization Are Not Associated With Severe Clostridium difficile Infection Outcome

Katie Saund; Krishna Rao; Vincent B Young; Evan S Snitkin

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofz548

Genetic Determinants of Trehalose Utilization Are Not Associated With Severe Clostridium difficile Infection Outcome

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Jan 4;7(1):ofz548. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz548. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Authors

Katie Saund¹, Krishna Rao², Vincent B Young^{1

2}, Evan S Snitkin^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
² Department of Internal Medicine/Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

Abstract

In a case-control study of patients with Clostridium difficile infection, we found no statistically significant association between the presence of trehalose utilization variants in infecting C. difficile strains and development of severe infection outcome. These results do not support trehalose utilization conferring enhanced virulence in the context of human C. difficile infections.

Keywords: Clostridium difficile; case–control study; comparative genomics; trehalose.

Abstract

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