Draft Genome Sequences of Seven Vibrio cholerae Isolates from Adult Patients in Qatar

We report the draft genome sequences of seven Vibrio cholerae isolates from patients. Four isolates were profiled as multilocus sequence type 69, serogroup O1, a subset of seventh-pandemic El Tor clonal isolates. Presented here are genome assemblies and evidence for major pathogenicity islands, virulence factors, and antimicrobial resistance genes.

C holera is an acute diarrheal disease and is transmitted via untreated water carrying the etiological agent Vibrio cholerae. Serogroups O1 and O139 are the causative agents of the ongoing pandemic, the seventh, and sporadic outbreaks globally (1). V. cholerae O1 isolates can be classified as the classical or El Tor biotype based on genotypic and phenotypic characteristics (2). Since the 19th century, seven cholera pandemics have been recorded, and V. cholerae O1 El Tor is the most common serogroup (1,3). Although cholera is endemic across Africa and Asia, the disease causes a serious public health burden in many places. However, V. cholerae has not been reported in Qatar.
Here, we report draft genome assemblies of seven V. cholerae strains from adults with cholera-like symptoms at Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar. Strain H08 was isolated from blood, and six isolates were from stool. Briefly, swabs were inoculated onto mSuperCARBA solid medium (CHROMagar, France) and incubated under aerobic conditions at 35 6 2°C for 18 to 24 h, minimizing exposure to light. After incubation, blue colonies were confirmed using the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight (MALDI-TOF) Biotyper system (Bruker, MA). Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using the Phoenix system (Becton, Dickinson, NJ). MICs for antibiotics were determined according to the CLSI breakpoints for Vibrio spp. (4). All sequence type 69 (ST69) isolates showed some level of resistance to the commonly employed antibiotics (4). Vibrio cultures were maintained in Difco LB broth (Fisher Scientific, Hampton, NH) with aeration at 37°C.
Data availability. The whole-genome shotgun data from this study have been deposited in the DDBJ/ENA/GenBank repositories under SRA number PRJNA656914. The genome assembly versions described in this paper are the first versions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partially supported by a research grant (NPRP 8-1252-1-233) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation) to Rashmi Fotedar (MME), Anwar Huq (UMD), and Rita R. Colwell (UMD).
We declare that we have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.