Clostridioides difficile

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Clostridioides difficile (syn. Clostridium difficile) is a bacterium known for causing serious diarrheal infections, and may also cause colon cancer. It is known also as C. difficile, or C. diff (), and is a Gram-positive species of spore-forming bacteria. Clostridioides spp. are anaerobic, motile bacteria, ubiquitous in nature and especially prevalent in soil. Its vegetative cells are rod-shaped, pleomorphic, and occur in pairs or short chains. Under the microscope, they appear as long, irregular (often drumstick- or spindle-shaped) cells with a bulge at their terminal ends (forms subterminal spores). C. difficile cells show optimum growth on blood agar at human body temperatures in the absence of oxygen. C. difficile is catalase- and superoxide dismutase-negative, and produces up to three types of toxins: enterotoxin A, cytotoxin B and Clostridioides difficile transferase. Under stress conditions, the bacteria produce spores that tolerate extreme conditions that the active bacteria...

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