title: A pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing scheme for Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates from fifteen countries.
abstract: Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important foodborne pathogen in Taiwan and many other maritime Asian countries where seafood is frequently consumed. A total of 535 strains of V. parahaemolyticus were recovered mostly (97%) from clinical samples obtained in Taiwan or in 14 other countries. These strains were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis following SfiI digestion and a typing scheme was generated. The 115 different patterns identified were grouped into 13 types with dissimilarity values less than 15, plus 16 miscellaneous patterns not grouped into any of the types. Types I, A, D and J contained the most patterns, with the numbers of patterns being 17, 13, 12, and 11, respectively. However, types I, B, D, A, H and C contained the most strains, with the numbers of strains being 204, 73, 71, 54, 29 and 25, respectively. Type I consisted exclusively of the pandemic O3:K6 strains and genetically closely related strains. This PFGE typing scheme for V. parahaemolyticus could be used for the characterization of pathogenic isolates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan 111, Republic of China. wonghc@scu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Hin-chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Shu-Hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chien-Shun
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chiou
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishibuchi
authors.forename: Bok-Kwon
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Orasa
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Suthienkul
authors.forename: Gopinath Balakrish
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Kaysner
authors.forename: Hatsumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D017747:Seafood / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial