PLoS ONE (Jan 2018)

Serology, virulence and molecular characteristics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from seafood in Zhejiang province.

  • Xiao Chen,
  • Qiaoyun Zhu,
  • Fei Yu,
  • Wen Zhang,
  • Ruonan Wang,
  • Xianfei Ye,
  • Linfeng Jin,
  • Yanchao Liu,
  • Shufei Li,
  • Yu Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204892
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 10
p. e0204892

Abstract

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Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a leading foodborne pathogen in southeastern China. In this study, 105 strains of V. parahaemolyticus were isolated from fresh seafood in 2013 and 2014. The serotypes, virulence-associated genes and sequence types (STs) of these strains were analyzed. 26 defined serotypes were identified and 69 strains (65.7%) had untypeable O or K antigen. 8 strains (7.6%) had the virulence-associated gene tdh and no strain carried the trh gene. 45.7% (48/105) of isolates contained all four T3SS1 genes and 50% (4/8) tdh+ trh- V. parahaemolyticus isolates lacked at least one of the four tested T3SS2α genes. 105 strains could be categorized into 84 STs and only 3 STs (ST3, ST8, ST675) had appeared in clinical strains. V. parahaemolyticus strains from seafood have more diverse and untypeable serotypes, less virulence-associated genes and more STs than strains from clinical sources.