Queraltó, CamilaOrtega, ConstanzaDíaz-Yáñez, FernandoInostroza, OsvaldoEspinoza, GiovanniÁlvarez, RicardoGonzález, RuthParra, FranciscoParedes-Sabja, DanielAcuña, Lillian G.Calderón, Iván L.Fuentes, Juan A.Gil, Fernando2023-11-242023-11-242023-06Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance. Volume 33, Pages 328 - 336. June 20232213-7165https://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/54046Indexación: Scopus.Objectives: Clostridioides difficile is a nosocomial pathogen that is associated with the use of antibiotics. One of the most worrying aspects of C. difficile infection is its ability to resist antimicrobial therapies, owing to spore formation. In several bacterial pathogens, proteases of the Clp family participate in phe notypes associated with persistence and virulence. This suggests that these proteins could be involved in virulence-related traits. In this study, we analysed the role of ClpC chaperone-protease of C. difficile in virulence-related traits by comparing the phenotypes of wild-type and mutant strains lacking the clpC gene ( clpC). Methods: We performed biofilm, motility, spore formation, and cytotoxicity assays. Results: Our results show significant differences between the wild-type and clpC strains in all analysed parameters. Conclusions: Based on these findings, we conclude that clpC plays a role in the virulence properties of C. difficile. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)enClostridioides DifficileClpC ChaperoneVirulence TraitsArtículoAtribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)10.1016/j.jgar.2023.05.004