The novel epidemic strain O139 is closely related to the pandemic strain O1 of Vibrio cholerae.

A new Vibrio cholerae serogroup O139 strain of unknown origin recently emerged in India and Bangladesh, causing a major outbreak of cholera. The genetic relationship between this epidemic strain and the O1 strain responsible for the 7th pandemic of cholera was studied by analyzing the DNA polymorphism of V. cholerae by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction. The restriction patterns of the reference strain O139 Bengal and 10 wild O139 strains isolated early in the Indian outbreak strikingly resemble that of the pandemic O1 strain of V. cholerae El Tor, thus suggesting a close genetic relationship among these strains. This similarity contrasts with the genetic heterogeneity of sporadic non-O1 strains isolated in various parts of the world. Study results strongly suggest that the new epidemic O139 strain is closely related to and might be derived from the pandemic O1 strain of V. cholerae.