Surface and virulence properties of environmental Vibrio cholerae non-O1 from Albufera Lake (Valencia, Spain).

A total of 140 environmental Vibrio cholerae non-O1 isolates, together with several culture collection strains from both environmental and clinical sources, were studied in relation to hemagglutination, surface hydrophobicity, and the enzymatic, hemolytic, cytotoxic, and enterotoxic activities of their extracellular products. A total of 78 and 62% of the strains produced hemagglutinins and exohemagglutinins, respectively. Four different hemagglutinating and two exohemagglutinating activities were found by using eight sugars in the inhibition assays. Cell-bound mannose-sensitive hemagglutination was detected mainly in chicken blood, whereas fucose-sensitive hemagglutination was recorded only in human blood. Cell-bound hemagglutinin resistant to all sugars tested was the only one related to surface hydrophobicity. The surface properties varied along the growth curves. The non-O1 strains displayed strong enzymatic and hemolytic activities, except for esculin hydrolysis. Of 26 non-O1 isolates selected for cytotoxin and enterotoxin production, 23 showed a wide spectrum of cytotoxic effects on cell lines of poikilothermic and homoiothermic species, but they were weakly enterotoxigenic in the infant mouse test. All extracellular products of cytotoxic strains were proteolytic, lipolytic, and hemolytic, and a high percentage produced hemagglutination of chicken blood. The cytotoxic factors in the non-O1 strains analyzed were not R plasmid mediated.