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Preferential association of the heat-stable enterotoxin gene (stn) with environmental strains of Vibrio cholerae belonging to the O14 serogroup

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2002

B. SARKAR
Affiliation:
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Beliaghata, Calcutta 700 010, India
T. BHATTACHARYA
Affiliation:
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Beliaghata, Calcutta 700 010, India
T. RAMAMURTHY
Affiliation:
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Beliaghata, Calcutta 700 010, India
T. SHIMADA
Affiliation:
National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162, Japan
Y. TAKEDA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Human Life Sciences, Jissen Women's University, Tokyo 181-8510, Japan
G. BALAKRISH NAIR
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), Mohakhali, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
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Abstract

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Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 serogroups have the capacity of causing epidemic and pandemic cholera but are infrequently found in the environment. The other serogroups are abundant in aquatic environments but do not possess the virulence genes necessary for causing the disease. Of the 559 environmental strains of V. cholerae, collected during different periods from environmental samples in Calcutta, 9 (1.6%) harboured the heat-stable enterotoxin gene (stn). Six of the 9 strains belonged to the O14 serogroup. Thus, V. cholerae strains carrying the stn gene revealed preferential association with the O14 serogroup. Three of the six strains harboured the tcpA gene of the E1 Tor type, which is an unusual feature among environmental V. cholerae strains. A strain that possessed the E1 Tor type tcpA also had the CTX prophage. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) revealed that the stn gene positive O14 strains of V. cholerae were not clonal.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press