title: Molecular Characterization of Vibrio cholerae Isolated From Clinical Samples in Kurdistan Province, Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vibrio cholerae causes diarrhoeal disease that afflicts thousands of people annually. V. cholerae is classified on the basis of somatic antigens into serovars or serogroups and there are at least 200 known serogroup. Two serogroups, O1 and O139 have been associated with epidemic diseases. Virulence genes of these bacteria are OmpW, ctxA and tcpA.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Due to the importance of V. cholerae infection and developing molecular diagnostics of this organism in medical and microbiology sciences, this study aimed to describe molecular characterization of V. cholerae isolated from clinical samples using a molecular method.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 48 samples were provided during summer 2013 (late August and early September) by reference laboratory. Samples were assessed using biochemical tests initially. The primer of OmpW, ctxA and tcpA genes was used in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) protocols. Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC)-PCR and Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic (REP)-PCR methods were used to subtype V. cholerae.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, from a total of 48 clinical stool samples 39 (81.2 %) were positive for V. cholerae in biochemical tests and bacteria culture tests. The PCR results showed that of 39 positive isolates 35 (89.7%), 34 (87.1%) and 37 (94.8%) were positive for ctxA, tcpA and OmpW gene, respectively. Also, in the REP-PCR method with ERIC primer strains were divided into 10 groups. In the REP-PCR method with REP primer, strains were divided into 13 groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Polymerase chain reaction has specificity and accuracy for identification of the organism and is able to differentiate biotypes. Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence is one of the informative and discriminative methods for the analysis of V. cholerae diversity. The REP-PCR is a less informative and discriminative method compared to other methods for the analysis of V. cholerae diversity.
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran ; Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramazanzadeh
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Samaneh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rouhi
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Pegah
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shakib
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Babak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shahbazi
authors.affiliation: Deputy of Public Health Affairs, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Farzam
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bidarpour
authors.affiliation: Deputy of Public Health Affairs, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karimi
keywords: Clinical Samples; Molecular Characterization; Vibrio cholerae; Virulence Genes