Epidemic isolates of Vibrio cholerae 0139 express antigenically distinct types of colonization pili

Abstract

Vibrio cholerae belonging to the recently described serogroup 0139, which are responsible for the current cholera epidemics in India and Bangladesh, were shown to express pilus-like structures partially cross-reacting with the toxin-coregulated pilus of V. cholerae strain (0395) belonging to the 01 serogroup and classical biotype. The 0139 pili were composed of 20 kDa subunit proteins which were antigenically related to the 20 kDa pilus protein of another diarrhoeagenic non-01 V. cholerae strain (serogroup 034) isolated earlier. The pili described in this study were found to be involved in the intestinal colonization process and, therefore, may contribute towards the virulence of the 0139 epidemic isolates.

Hemagglutination is a novel biological function of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), as seen with the Vibrio cholerae O139 LPS

“…V. cholerae has been reported to express rigid pili controlled by a transmembrane protein, ToxR, which also controls expression of cholera toxin (11). This toxin-coregulated pilus is known to have a role in bacterial adherence (6), but this pilus is restricted to V. cholerae serogroups, O1 (6) and O139 (19). The hemagglutinating function of outer membrane proteins has also been documented (1,18,22).…”

Plasmid Mediated Drug Resistance in Vibrio Cholerae 0139 Bengal

“…Of these 12 were identified as 0139 Bengal and 4 as V cho/erae £1 Tor. The antisera were raised in rabbit in our institute by inoculating killed standard 0139 strains [9].…”