ABSTRACT: Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive, spore-forming enteric anaerobe which can infect humans and a wide variety of animal species. Recently, the incidence and severity of human C. difficile infection has markedly increased. In this study, we evaluated the genomic content of 73 C. difficile strains isolated from humans, horses, cattle, and pigs by comparative genomic hybridization with microarrays containing coding sequences from C. difficile strains 630 and QCD-32g58. The sequenced genome of C. difficile strain 630 was used as a reference to define a candidate core genome of C. difficile and to explore correlations between host origins and genetic diversity. Approximately 16% of the genes in strain 630 were highly conserved among all strains, representing the core complement of functional genes defining C. difficile. Absent or divergent genes in the tested strains were distributed across the entire C. difficile 630 genome and across all the predicted functional categories. Interestingly, certain genes were conserved among strains from a specific host species, but divergent in isolates with other host origins. This information provides insight into the genomic changes which might contribute to host adaptation. Due to a high degree of divergence among C. difficile strains, a core gene list from this study offers the first step toward the construction of diagnostic arrays for C. difficile.investigated by determining changes in transcript profiles when aerobic steady-state cultures were depleted of air. Dye-swap experiments with genomic DNA of tested and reference strains 8383cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8384cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8384cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8385cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8385cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8386cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8525cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8525cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8527cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8529cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8531cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8531cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8533cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8533cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8596cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8596cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 8694cy3.gpr- Cy3 – test, Cy5 – reference 8694cy5.gpr- Cy3 – reference, Cy5 – test 2 GPR files per Sample record except for 4 Sample records (GSM480414, GSM480417, GSM480419, and GSM480420) which have 1 GPR file each 4 GPR file for those Sample records are lost
