[Genomic variability of vibrio cholerae El Tor biovariant strains].

The authors performed comparative analysis of the genomes of 145 clinical and environmental isolates of Vibrio cholerae El Tor biovariants using single locus and multiplex PCR. The study found that clinical strains isolated from patients with cholera formed a genetically homogenous group, where bacterial chromosome contained all the tested virulence genes, situated on mobile genetic elements that had been acquired by the pathogen at various stages of its evolution. Strains isolated from water ecosystems during interepidemic period were heterogeneous and formed three groups: a small number of virulent strains; non-toxigenic vibrio strains that, in the process of reductional variation in their new econiche, had only managed to maintain individual virulence genes; non-pathogenic "water" vibrios, whose chromosome contained only the genes from its core part, mobile genetic elements being optionally represented only by the persistence island. Molecular typing established genetic relations among V. cholerae strains under study.