Molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of genotypes in Hillah, Iraq.

is a cause of serious endemic diarrhoea associated with cholera in many regions in the world. A total of 256 stool and rectal swabs were collected from patients suspected to have cholera admitted to three hospitals in Hillah, Babylon Governorate, Iraq, for the period 1 September to 29 December 2017. After the routine culture of samples for isolation and identification of isolates, PCR was performed for molecular detection of isolates based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Toxigenicity was detected by RTX toxin genes. PCR technique emphasized molecular detection of for eight isolates. Only two isolates (25%) possessed both the and genes, while only three isolates (37.5%) possessed the gene. DNA sequencing was performed for the eight isolates via analysis and phylogenetic tree. The observed bacterial variants were compared to their neighbour homologous reference sequences using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) BLAST server (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi). The findings indicated that the eight investigated isolates of were positioned in three different phylogenetic positions. Partial sequence dissimilarities were reported between GenBank isolate accession number MK212155.1 and these six clustered GenBank accession numbers of the same species. For the first time in Babylon Governorate, Iraq, the molecular assay, sequencing and phylogenetic tree are reported for and their toxins isolated during the 2017 cholera outbreak.