THE NOVEL EPIDEMIC STRAIN O139 IS CLOSELY-RELATED TO THE PANDEMIC STRAIN O1 OF VIBRIO-CHOLERAE

A new Vibrio cholerae serogroup O139 strain of unknown origin recently emerged in India and Bangladesh, causing a major outbreak of cholera. The genetic relationship between this epidemic strain and the O1 stra in responsible for the 7th pandemic of cholera was studied by analyzin g the DNA polymorphism of V. cholerae by pulsed-field gel electrophore sis and arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction. The restriction patterns of the reference strain O139 Bengal and 10 wild O139 strains isolated early in the Indian outbreak strikingly resemble that of the pandemic O1 strain of V. cholerae El Tor, thus suggesting a close gene tic relationship among these strains. This similarity contrasts with t he genetic heterogeneity of sporadic non-O1 strains isolated in variou s parts of the world. Study results strongly suggest that the new epid emic O139 strain is closely related to and might be derived from the p andemic O1 strain of V. cholerae.