Biogeographic Patterns in Genomic Diversity among a Large Collection ofVibrio choleraeIsolates

• DOI: 10.1128/aem.01304-08
• Publication Date: 2009-01-13T02:09:08Z
• Authors: Daniel P. Keymer; Lilian H. Lam; Alexandria B. Boehm
• Keywords: Cholera

Vibrio cholerae strains are capable of inhabiting multiple niches in the aquatic environment and some cases cause disease humans. However, ecology biodiversity these bacteria environmental settings remains poorly understood. We used genomic fingerprinting technique enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR) to profile 835 isolates from waters sediments obtained at nine sites along central California coast. identified 115 ERIC-PCR genotypes 998 fingerprints, with a reproducibility 98.5% discriminatory power 0.971. When temporal dynamics subset sampling were explored, several provided evidence for cosmopolitan or geographically restricted distributions, other displayed nonrandom patterns cooccurrence. Partial Mantel tests confirmed that genotypic similarity across all events was correlated (0.04 < = r 0.05), proximity (r 0.09), geographic distance 0.09). A neutral community model explained 61% variation genotype abundance. Cooccurrence indices (C-score, C-board, Combo) significantly different than expected by chance, suggesting V. population may have competitive structure, especially regional scale. Even though stochastic processes undoubtedly important generating biogeographic diversity, deterministic factors appear play significant, albeit small, role shaping structure this system.