Carriage of three plasmids in a single human clinical isolate of Clostridioides difficile

Abstract

AbstractA subset of clinical isolates of Clostridioides difficile contains one or more plasmids and these plasmids can harbor virulence and antimicrobial resistance determinants. Despite their potential importance, C. difficile plasmids remain poorly characterized. Here, we describe a human clinical isolate that carries three plasmids from three different plasmid families that are therefore compatible. For two of these, we identify a region capable of sustaining plasmid replication in C. difficile. Together, our data advance our understanding of C. difficile plasmid biology.HighlightsThe complete circular genome sequence is provided for a C. difficile isolate harboring three plasmidsThese three plasmids (pJMR5-1, pJMR5-4 and pJRM5-W) are therefore compatible in a single strainSequence analysis suggest a modular nature of plasmid families to which the pJMR-plasmids belongA functional replicon was cloned from pJMR5-1 (pCD-ECE1 family) and pJMR5-W (pCD-WTSI1 family) and plasmids carrying this replicon are compatible with plasmid pCD630