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Development of a More Sensitive and Specific Chromogenic Agar Medium for the Detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Other Vibrio Species
09:34

Development of a More Sensitive and Specific Chromogenic Agar Medium for the Detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Other Vibrio Species

Published on: November 8, 2016

Origin of Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 pandemic clone

Guoxiang Chao1, Fang Wang, Xiaohui Zhou

  • 1Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.

International Journal of Food Microbiology
|February 15, 2011
PubMed

Insights

The Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 pandemic clone originated from an environmental nonpathogenic strain. This pandemic strain evolved around 1996 through gene transfer, impacting coastal regions globally.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • The O3:K6 clone of Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been responsible for global pandemics since 1996.
  • Mutilocus sequence typing (MLST) is crucial for tracking bacterial evolution and origins.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains using MLST.
  • To determine the origin and evolutionary path of the O3:K6 pandemic clone.

Main Methods:

  • MLST was performed on 57 pandemic, 27 pathogenic, and 36 nonpathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains from China.
  • Data were analyzed using eBURST and Mega4 software to identify sequence types and clonal complexes.

Main Results:

  • Forty-seven unique sequence types, one clonal complex (CC), and one doublet were identified.
  • The O3:K6 pandemic clone, including ST-3, ST-192, and ST-227, shared the founder ST-3 with nonpathogenic strains.
  • The ancestor of the pandemic clone was a nonpathogenic O3:K6, ST-3 environmental strain.

Conclusions:

  • The O3:K6 pandemic clone emerged from an environmental nonpathogenic strain around 1996 via horizontal gene transfer.
  • Bacterial evolution and pandemic emergence can be elucidated through comprehensive MLST analysis.

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