Diphtheria is a dreadful disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Lysogenised bacteriophages carrying toxin gene in C. diphtheriae can make the strain toxigenic. However, such phage disseminates the toxin genes to other strains when it undergoes lytic phase. As little is known about the phage diversity in C. diphtheriae in India, the present study was undertaken to investigate the prophages integrated into the genome of 29 clinical isolates of C. diphtheriae using whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Amongst these isolates, 27 were toxigenic, while 2 were non-toxigenic strains. Of the 27 toxigenic strains, all harbored known phages carrying toxin gene and two other phages with unknown function. However, the two non-toxin strains did not harbour any of the phages in the genome. It is imperative to devise prevention strategies that hinder the dissemination of toxin by prophages, as it may increase the complications of diphtheria post-immunisation.

中文翻译：

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对印度白喉棒杆菌临床分离株中编码原噬菌体的白喉毒素的见解。

白喉是由白喉棒杆菌引起的可怕疾病。白喉杆菌中携带毒素基因的溶源噬菌体可使该菌株产生毒素。然而，这种噬菌体在经历裂解阶段时将毒素基因传播到其他菌株。由于对印度白喉杆菌的噬菌体多样性知之甚少，本研究旨在利用全基因组鸟枪法测序研究整合到 29 个白喉杆菌临床分离株基因组中的原噬菌体。在这些分离株中，27 株是产毒株，2 株是非产毒株。在27个产毒菌株中，所有噬菌体均携带已知的携带毒素基因的噬菌体和另外两个功能未知的噬菌体。然而，这两种非毒素菌株的基因组中不含有任何噬菌体。必须制定阻止原噬菌体传播毒素的预防策略，因为它可能会增加免疫后白喉的并发症。