LAUSR

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.