title: Variable repeat regions in the genome of Vibrio vulnificus and polymorphism in one of the loci in strains isolated from oysters.
abstract: Vibrio vulnificus an estuarine bacterium is associated with severe wound infections and fatal septicemia related to consumption of raw shellfish. In this study we screened the two whole genome sequences available for V. vulnificus in GenBank for the presence of variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) regions. Five potential VNTR loci with unit repeat size ranging from 6-7 nucleotides were identified for V. vulnificus genome. One of the loci designated Vv1 was selected to detect the repeat number present in V. vulnificus strains isolated from oyster samples in India. Twenty six of the thirty samples tested were found to be highly polymorphic for the Vv1 locus. Copy numbers for the hexanucleotide motif ranged from 4-55, giving rise to a total of 17 polymorphic groups. Our analysis, shows that different genotypic variants exist in the environment and the VNTR loci studied can be used as a marker for strain discrimination and in epidemiological study of this organism.
authors: Department of Fishery Microbiology, Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, College of Fisheries , Mangalore 575 002, India.
authors: Malathi
authors: M
authors: Shekar
authors: Sadananda
authors: S
authors: Acharya
authors: Indrani
authors: I
authors: Karunasagar
authors: Iddya
authors: I
authors: Karunasagar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D010125:Ostreidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012758:Shellfish / Q000382:microbiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D041261:Vibrio vulnificus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005819:Genetic Markers