W. K. Smits

This study examines fungal-bacterial gut microbiota interactions in patients with C. difficile colonisation and infection, finding differences in fungal abundance and indirect interactions with bacteria.

The paper identifies that PCR ribotype 151 of Clostridioides difficile is polyphyletic, includes both non-toxigenic and toxigenic isolates, and contains pathogenic variants that evade routine diagnostics.

The paper describes a C. difficile clinical isolate carrying three compatible plasmids and identifies functional replicons in two of them.

This study evaluates fluorescent reporter systems in C. difficile for live-cell imaging, finding that SNAPCd is the most suitable due to its oxygen independence.

The paper shows heme dependence in metronidazole resistance in C. difficile clinical isolates, linked to a SNP in hsmA and associated with a resistant lineage.

This study identifies genes directly regulated by σB in C. difficile and shows that antimicrobials and hydrogen peroxide induce these genes via σB-dependent mechanisms.

This study shows the C-terminal domain of TcdC in C. difficile is extracellular, challenging its proposed role as an anti-sigma factor.

This study identifies extrachromosomal elements in C. difficile strains using in silico analysis, finding 13% of strains contain 1-6 elements, including 6 novel plasmid families.

This paper identifies a plasmid, pCD-METRO, as the first reported cause of plasmid-mediated metronidazole resistance in Clostridioides difficile, showing its global dissemination and horizontal transfer potential.

This study characterizes HupA, a bacterial chromatin protein in C. difficile, showing it binds DNA, induces conformational changes, and compacts the chromosome.

This study shows that genome location influences the transcriptional response to PolC-inhibition in C. difficile, with origin-proximal genes being more upregulated.

The paper identifies Axc, a novel beta-lactamase with carbapenemase activity, in a meropenem-resistant Achromobacter xylosoxidans isolate using proteomics and confirms its role in resistance.

This study identifies a family of pCD630-like plasmids in Clostridium difficile defined by a conserved helicase and reports two sub-groups differing in size and accessory modules.