title: Molecular evidence of clonal Vibrio parahaemolyticus pandemic strains.
abstract: The upsurge in worldwide incidence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection in the last 5 years has been attributed to the recent appearance of three serotypes with pandemic potential: O3:K6, O4:K68, and O1:K untypeable (KUT). Thirty-five strains of these serotypes, isolated from different countries over 4 years, were characterized by ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to determine their origin. The ribotypes of the strains of these serotypes were indistinguishable, except for a Japanese tdh- negative O3:K6 strain and a U.S. clinical O3:K6 isolate, which had slightly different profiles. The migration patterns of the NotI-digest of the total DNA of the strains were similar, and only slight variations were observed between the serotypes. By contrast, the O3:K6 and O1:KUT strains isolated before 1995 and strains of other serotypes had markedly different profiles. The O4:K68 and O1:KUT strains most likely originated from the pandemic O3:K6 clone.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Calcutta, India.
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishibuchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Nair
mesh_terms: D015139:Blotting, Southern; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D021521:Ribotyping; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*