[Characteristics of Vibrio cholerae nonO1/nonO139 serogroup strains that caused diseases in population of Rostov region].

AIM: Genotype characteristic and determination of serological properties of Vibrio cholerae nonO1/nonO139 strains that caused diseases in population of Rostov region from 2000 to 2009. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 15 clinical strains of V. cholerae nonO1/nonO139 were studied. Serotyping was performed by using a kit of monospecific typing sera against serogroup 02-084 cholera vibrios obtained from Rostov Research Institute for Plague Control, PCR and VNTR-genotyping--by using specific primers described in scientific publications and constructed by us. RESULTS: Serologic features of strains are very diverse and strains contain various combination of pathogenicity factor genes that seem to be interchangeable. Similar pattern was observed for VNTR-genotyping. Distribution of the examined strains by VNTR-genotyping did not correlate with either PCR-genotyping data or serotyping, or place and time of isolation. CONCLUSION: The data obtained indicates a lack of general source of human infection even in the same location and time period. On the other hand, serological and genotypic features of V. cholerae nonO1/nonO139 may undergo changes in the process of staying in the macro organism or environment due to high plasticity of their genome.