%0 Journal Article %A Murase, Kazunori %A Arakawa, Eiji %A Izumiya, Hidemasa %A Iguchi, Atsushi %A Takemura, Taichiro %A Kikuchi, Taisei %A Nakagawa, Ichiro %A Thomson, Nicholas R. %A Ohnishi, Makoto %A Morita, Masatomo %T Genomic dissection of the Vibrio cholerae O-serogroup global reference strains: reassessing our view of diversity and plasticity between two chromosomes %D 2022 %J Microbial Genomics, %V 8 %N 8 %@ 2057-5858 %C 000860 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000860 %K O-serogroup reference strain %K O-antigen biosynthetic gene cluster %K Vibrio cholerae %K multi-chromosomal bacteria %I Microbiology Society, %X Approximately 200 O-serogroups of Vibrio cholerae have already been identified; however, only 2 serogroups, O1 and O139, are strongly related to pandemic cholera. The study of non-O1 and non-O139 strains has hitherto been limited. Nevertheless, there are other clinically and epidemiologically important serogroups causing outbreaks with cholera-like disease. Here, we report a comprehensive genome analysis of the whole set of V. cholerae O-serogroup reference strains to provide an overview of this important bacterial pathogen. It revealed structural diversity of the O-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters located at specific loci on chromosome 1 and 16 pairs of strains with almost identical O-antigen biosynthetic gene clusters but differing in serological patterns. This might be due to the presence of O-antigen biosynthesis-related genes at secondary loci on chromosome 2. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000860