Query: NC_013315:2059007 Clostridium difficile CD196 chromosome, complete genome
Lineage: Peptoclostridium difficile; Peptoclostridium; Peptostreptococcaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Isolated from a single patient with pseudomembranous colitis in a Paris hospital in 1985. Clostridium difficile, a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacterium, is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea among patients in hospitals worldwide, causing C. difficile infection (CDI). An important nosocomial pathogen, it is frequently associated with antibiotic treatment and causes diseases ranging from antibiotic-associated diarrhea to life-threatening pseudomembraneous colitis.
Subject: NC_010001:1745089 Clostridium phytofermentans ISDg, complete genome
Lineage: Lachnoclostridium phytofermentans; Lachnoclostridium; Lachnospiraceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Isolated from forest soil near the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts, USA. This organism plays an important industrial and ecological role in the anaerobic fermentation of cellulose and produces economically significant levels of acetate and ethanol. This genus comprises about 150 metabolically diverse species of anaerobes that are ubiquitous in virtually all anoxic habitats where organic compounds are present, including soils, aquatic sediments and the intestinal tracts of animals and humans. This shape is attributed to the presence of endospores that develop under conditions unfavorable for vegetative growth and distend single cells terminally or sub-terminally. Spores germinate under conditions favorable for vegetative growth, such as anaerobiosis and presence of organic substrates. It is believed that present day Mollicutes (Eubacteria) have evolved regressively (i.e., by genome reduction) from gram-positive clostridia-like ancestors with a low GC content in DNA.