This study describes the abundance of multidrug-resistant Vibrios associated with marine invertebrate hosts from the Andaman Sea, India. Thirty-eight Vibrio strains were isolated from surface mucus layers of coral Porites, Goniastrea, Pocillopora, Fungia, and eggs of spiny lobster (Panulirus penicillatus). Phenotypically, the majority of strains exhibited growth at a wide range of temperatures, salt tolerance, and diverse nutritional requirements. All the strains had more than 97% 16S rRNA sequence similarity with type species of the genus Vibrio where Vibrio fortis, and Vibrio alginolyticus were predominant. Multilocus Sequence Analysis (MLSA) using eight housekeeping genes namely ftsZ, gapA, gyrB, mreB, pyrH, recA, rpoA, and topA distributed the strains into 6 reported clades i.e., Harveyi, Ponticus, Nereis, Orientalis, Splendidus, and Mediterranei where nearly half of the total strains represented the clade Harveyi, followed by the clade Splendidus. Likewise, the PFGE profile indicated genomic heterogeneity among the strains resulting in their distribution in five major clusters. Resistance to different antimicrobials was tested following the disc diffusion method where all strains were found susceptible to chloramphenicol (30 µg) and resistant to streptomycin (10 µg), vancomycin (30 µg), sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (25 µg). Moreover, the resistant phenotype to other antimicrobials confirmed the abundance of multidrug resistance strains in this marine environment.

这项研究描述了与来自印度安达曼海的海洋无脊椎动物宿主相关的多重耐药弧菌的数量。从珊瑚Porites、Goniastrea、Pocillopora、Fungia和多刺龙虾 ( Panulirus penicillatus ) 的卵的表面粘液层中分离出38株弧菌菌株。从表型上看，大多数菌株在广泛的温度、耐盐性和不同的营养需求范围内都表现出生长。所有菌株与弧菌属（Vibrio fortis）和溶藻弧菌（Vibrio alginolyticus）的类型种具有97%以上的16S rRNA序列相似性。占主导地位。多位点序列分析 (MLSA) 使用八个看家基因，即ftsZ、gapA、gyrB、mreB、pyrH、recA、rpoA和topA，将菌株分布到 6 个报道的进化枝中，即Harveyi、Ponticus、Nereis、Orientalis、Splendidus和Mediterranei，其中几乎总菌株的一半代表进化枝Harveyi，其次是进化枝Splendidus。同样，PFGE 谱表明菌株之间的基因组异质性导致它们分布在五个主要集群中。按照圆盘扩散法测试了对不同抗菌剂的耐药性，其中发现所有菌株对氯霉素 (30 µg) 敏感并且对链霉素 (10 µg)、万古霉素 (30 µg)、磺胺甲恶唑-甲氧苄啶 (25 µg) 具有抗性。此外，对其他抗菌剂的耐药表型证实了这种海洋环境中存在大量的多药耐药菌株。