CAPSULAR TYPES OF VIBRIO-VULNIFICUS - AN ANALYSIS OF STRAINS FROM CLINICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES

Vibrio vulnificus produces a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) that is ess ential for virulence. CPS from V. vulnificus clinical strain MO6-24 ha s been purified and the structure determined. In preliminary screening with antisera raised to MO6-24 CPS, 4 (19%) of 21 clinical isolates ( including MO6-24), but none of 67 environmental V. vulnificus isolates , agglutinated with anti-MO6-24 antisera (P = .003). CPS was isolated from a subset of 12 clinical and 7 environmental isolates and analyzed by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography and one-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance. MO6-24 and 1 other serologically positive strain had identical CPS structures; the other 2 serologically positi ve strains had substitutions in two of four sugar residues. Thirteen o ther capsular types were identified among the remaining 15 strains fro m which CPS was extracted.