CodY-Dependent Regulation of Sporulation in Clostridium difficile
ABSTRACTClostridium difficilemust form a spore to survive outside the gastrointestinal tract. The factors that trigger sporulation inC. difficileremain poorly understood. Previous studies have suggested that a link exists between nutritional status and sporulation initiation inC. difficile. In this study, we investigated the impact of the global nutritional regulator CodY on sporulation inC. difficilestrains from the historical 012 ribotype and the current epidemic 027 ribotype. Sporulation frequencies were increased in both backgrounds, demonstrating that CodY represses sporulation inC. difficile. The 027codYmutant exhibited a greater increase in spore formation than the 012codYmutant. To determine the role of CodY in the observed sporulation phenotypes, we examined several factors that are known to influence sporulation inC. difficile. Using transcriptional reporter fusions and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis, we found that two loci associated with the initiation of sporulation,oppandsinR, are regulated by CodY. The data demonstrate that CodY is a repressor of sporulation inC. difficileand that the impact of CodY on sporulation and expression of specific genes is significantly influenced by the strain background. These results suggest that the variability of CodY-dependent regulation is an important contributor to virulence and sporulation in current epidemic isolates. This report provides further evidence that nutritional state, virulence, and sporulation are linked inC. difficile.IMPORTANCEThis study sought to examine the relationship between nutrition and sporulation inC. difficileby examining the global nutritional regulator CodY. CodY is a known virulence and nutritional regulator ofC. difficile, but its role in sporulation was unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CodY is a negative regulator of sporulation in two different ribotypes ofC. difficile. We also demonstrate that CodY regulates known effectors of sporulation, Opp and SinR. These results support the idea that nutrient limitation is a trigger for sporulation inC. difficileand that the response to nutrient limitation is coordinated by CodY. Additionally, we demonstrate that CodY has an altered role in sporulation regulation for some strains.