Investigation of populations heterogeneous according to O-antigen in Vibrio cholerae cultures.

The O-antigenic composition of 36 cultures of Vibrio cholerae agglutinating simultaneously with 01 cholera sera and 0 sera to NAG vibrios of the Sakazaki collection was investigated. It has been established experimentally that under the effect of medium and environmental conditions such cultures dissociate to subcultures differing in their affiliation to different serological groups according to 0 antigen. The passage of these cultures in the organism of susceptible animals promotes preservation of 01-group clones whereas the passage in peptone water or prolonged storage under unfavourable conditions result in the predominance of clones of different serological affiliation. The proposition has been put forward that the observed vibrio cultures are genotypically capable of producing, besides the 01 group, a number of 0 antigens. Phenotypical manifestation of the antigenic structure in the respective individuals of the population depends on the conditions of the environment.