Finding the missing link in the life cycle of pandemic generating Vibrio cholerae O1

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The bacterium Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic microbe responsible for the often-lethal diarrheal disease cholera, which affects hundreds of thousands of people every year. Only a specific lineage of this species, often known as O1/O139 for the antigens displayed on their surface, can cause the disease. Despite decades of studying this bacterium, we are still struggling to explain how yearly outbreaks start in areas where it is found. A recent cholera outbreak resulting from the consumption of herring eggs on the coast of Vancouver island also raises concerns as to whether climate change is expanding the range of this disease, normally restricted to warmer climates. We have recently found that our difficulty in understanding the start of outbreaks was because we studied the entire Vibrio cholerae species, not individual lineages. Indeed, each lineage of this species seems to have its own ecological characteristics, such as living at various salt concentrations, temperatures, or associated with different types of particles or hosts. Here we aim to define the environmental factors that specifically favor the pathogenic Vibrio cholerae O1/O139 lineage. This would allow us to better understand its dispersal and blooming in aquatic environments, so that we can predict outbreaks more accurately and identify the implications of global warming for the range of this disease.