Genomic analysis of a novel ST11(PR34365) <i>Clostridioides difficile</i> strain isolated from the human fecal of a CDI patient in Guizhou, China

<i>Clostridioides difficile</i> is a pathogen that causes pseudomembranous colitis with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. The epidemiology and molecular evolution of <i>C. difficile</i> may differ among different geographic regions, and mining its genomic information can help to understand the epidemiology and molecular evolution of <i>C. difficile</i> and focus on its transmission mode. A <i>C. difficile</i> strain denoted WXL8 was isolated from a human fecal sample from a patient in the intensive care unit, and its physiology and genomic sequence were determined. The total genome size of WXL8 was 4,119,929 bp, and the GC content was 27.97%. The multilocus sequence typing results indicated that WXL8 is strain type 11 (ST11), a genotype widely present in livestock. The WXL8 was located in clade 5 of ST11. The ribotype of WXL8 was a novel ribotype (PR34365). It is the first report of the ST11 (PR34365) strain. Comparative genomic analysis between WXL8 and the other four high-virulence strains (CD630, CDBR81, CDS-0253, and CDR20291) showed differences in gene arrangement, indicating the uniqueness of <i>C. difficile</i> WXL8. In the present study, a novel ribotype (PR34365) ST11 strain of <i>C. difficile</i> was isolated from a patient with diarrhea in Guizhou, China. Our findings suggest that zoonotic CDI should receive more clinical attention.