Genomic diversity of Clostridium difficile strains.

Approaches to exploring Clostridium difficile genomic diversity have ranged from molecular typing methods to use of comparative genome microarrays and whole genome sequence comparisons. The C. difficile population structure is clonal and distributed into six clades, which correlate well with MLST STs (multilocus sequence types) and PCR ribotypes. However, toxigenic strains and strains with increased virulence are distributed throughout several clades. Here we summarize studies on C. difficile genomic diversity, with emphasis on phylogenetic aspects, epidemiological aspect and variability of some virulence factors.