Isolation and Identification of Potentially Pathogenic Vibrio Species from Qatari Coastal Seawaters

The genus Vibrio accounts for a major group of marine and estuarine bacteria capable of causing diseases in various aquatic organisms including fishes, corals, shellfish's and shrimps. Infections with these organisms have profound environmental and economic consequences. In the present study, 52 isolates of Vibrio species were isolated from the water samples collected from 14 sites surrounding Qatar during the winter season. Using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and MALDI-TOF MS we identified 13 different luminous and non-luminous Vibrio species. V. alginolyticus (50%) was the predominant species followed by V. harveyi (11%), V. owensii (7%), V. nigripulchritudo (6%), V. rotiferianus (6%), V. mediterranei (6%), V. hepatarius (2%), V. shilonii (2%), V. maritimus (2%), V. coralliilyticus (2%), V. tubiashii (2%), V. parahaemolyticus (2%), and V. proteolyticus (2%). We were able to identify all (100%) isolates using 16S rRNA, (>94 percentage similarity) as compared to MALDI TOF-MS which could correctly identify only 60% isolates. Majority (70%) of the potentially pathogenic Vibrio's isolates of Vibrio's were recovered from the fishing ports of Qatar namely Al-Khor and Al-Wakra. The isolation of various pathogenic species of Vibrio's from the Qatari marine environment indicates the potential sanitary risk and stresses the need for further studies to prevent infections. Acknowledgments: This research was supported by the research grant (Grant NPRP 6-647-1-127) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) to R. Fotedar (Ministry of Environment, Qatar), Thorsten Stoeck (L, Germany), Teun Boekhout (CBS- KNAW, The Netherlands) and Jack Fell (RSMAS,USA).