Aim: This study aims to evaluate the genetic and population structure of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the major coastal regions of China.
Materials & methods: Multilocus sequence typing was performed.
Results: Insertion of large sequence into recA happened in nearly 30 strains, which were untypeable by multilocus sequence typing. A collection of 307 V. parahaemolyticus isolates were typed into 160 sequence types, including 117 novel ones. eBURST analysis revealed five clonal complexes, 11 doublets, and 108 singletons. The 160 sequence types formed two main lineages in the phylogenetic analysis.
Conclusion: V. parahaemolyticus along the Chinese coastal regions exhibits high levels of genetic diversity and has undergone significant purifying selection and frequent recombination. A deeper understanding of V. parahaemolyticus genetic diversity could be obtained at the level of genome sequences.
Keywords: China; MLST; Vibrio parahaemolyticus; genetic diversity; population structure.