Gm. Evins et al., THE EMERGING DIVERSITY OF THE ELECTROPHORETIC TYPES OF VIBRIO-CHOLERAE IN THE WESTERN-HEMISPHERE, The Journal of infectious diseases, 172(1), 1995, pp. 173-179
Since the Latin American cholera epidemic began in 1991, 447 isolates
of Vibrio cholerae O1 from the Western Hemisphere have been assayed by
multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) to determine allelic variatio
n among 16 enzyme-encoding genes. Two electrophoretic types (ETs) were
identified among toxigenic isolates from Latin America: 323 were ET 4
, the ET associated with the Latin American epidemic, and 29 were ET 3
. Twenty-three of these ET 3 isolates had a distinctive antimicrobial
resistance pattern also seen in isolates imported into the United Stat
es from Latin America and Southeast Asia. These resistant isolates had
an identical ribotype and nearly identical pulsed-held gel electropho
resis (PFGE) patterns. Most nontoxigenic isolates analyzed were not pr
ecursors or descendants of toxigenic epidemic strains. MEE provided a
population genetic framework for the interpretation of PFGE and riboty
pe data from the isolates in this study. All three methods identified
2 distinct strains of toxigenic V. cholerae O1 currently epidemic in L
atin America.