Ecology and Genetic Structure of a Northern Temperate Vibrio cholerae Population Related to Toxigenic Isolates
- 1 November 2011
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Applied and Environmental Microbiology
- Vol. 77 (21), 7568-7575
- https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00378-11
Abstract
Although Vibrio cholerae is an important human pathogen, little is known about its populations in regions where the organism is endemic but where cholera disease is rare. A total of 31 independent isolates confirmed as V. cholerae were collected from water, sediment, and oysters in 2008 and 2009 from the Great Bay Estuary (GBE) in New Hampshire, a location where the organism has never been detected. Environmental analyses suggested that abundance correlates most strongly with rainfall events, as determined from data averaged over several days prior to collection. Phenotyping, genotyping, and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) revealed a highly diverse endemic population, with clones recurring in both years. Certain isolates were closely related to toxigenic O1 strains, yet no virulence genes were detected. Multiple statistical tests revealed evidence of recombination among strains that contributed to allelic diversity equally as mutation. This relatively isolated population discovered on the northern limit of detection for V. cholerae can serve as a model of natural population dynamics that augments predictive models for disease emergence.Keywords
This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
- Recombination Shapes the Structure of an Environmental Vibrio cholerae PopulationApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- The Origin of the Haitian Cholera Outbreak StrainNew England Journal of Medicine, 2011
- Comparison of the Pathogenic Potentials of Environmental and Clinical Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains Indicates a Role for Temperature Regulation in VirulenceApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2010
- Comparative genomics reveals mechanism for short-term and long-term clonal transitions in pandemic Vibrio choleraeProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Biogeographic Patterns in Genomic Diversity among a Large Collection of Vibrio cholerae IsolatesApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2009
- Accurate taxonomy assignments from 16S rRNA sequences produced by highly parallel pyrosequencersNucleic Acids Research, 2008
- Rapid Growth of Planktonic Vibrio cholerae Non-O1/Non-O139 Strains in a Large Alkaline Lake in Austria: Dependence on Temperature and Dissolved Organic Carbon QualityApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008
- Genomic and Phenotypic Diversity of Coastal Vibrio cholerae Strains Is Linked to Environmental FactorsApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- Refined Medium for Direct Isolation of Vibrio vulnificus from Oyster Tissue and SeawaterApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- Application of Phylogenetic Networks in Evolutionary StudiesMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2005