A study on the geophylogeny of clinical and environmental Vibrio cholerae in Kenya.
Cholera remains a significant public health challenge in many sub-Saharan countries including Kenya. We have performed a combination of phylogenetic and phenotypic analysis based on whole genome DNA sequences derived from 40 environmental and 57 clinical V. cholerae from different regions of Kenya isolated between 2005 and 2010. Some environmental and all clinical isolates mapped back onto wave three of the monophyletic seventh pandemic V. cholerae El Tor phylogeny but other environmental isolates were phylogenetically very distinct. Thus, the genomes of the Kenyan V. cholerae O1 El Tor isolates are clonally related to other El Tor V. cholerae isolated elsewhere in the world and similarly harbour antibiotic resistance-associated STX elements. Further, the Kenyan O1 El Tor isolates fall into two distinct clades that may have entered Kenya independently.
Centre for Microbiology Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
John
J
Kiiru
Ankur
A
Mutreja
Ahmed Abade
AA
Mohamed
Racheal W
RW
Kimani
Joyce
J
Mwituria
Robert Onsare
RO
Sanaya
Jane
J
Muyodi
Gunturu
G
Revathi
Julian
J
Parkhill
Nicholas
N
Thomson
Gordon
G
Dougan
Samuel
S
Kariuki
D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*