Serological Analysis of Thermolabile Antigens of Vibrio anguillarum (J-O-1J-O-3)

Abstract

Analysis of thermolabile antigens of the representative strains belonging to each O-serotype showed that the strains beloging to J-O-1, J-O-2 and J-O-3 possessed a common thermolabile antigen which was designated as k-1. In addition to k-1, the strains of all J-O-1 of phenon II (V. anguillarum biovar II) possessed another antigen which was designated as k-2. We subsequently examined the thermolabile antigens of the 103 strains (including three reference strains) of V. anguillarum of phenon I and 27 strains (including two reference strains) of V. anguillarum of phenon II belonging to J-O-1. All 103 strains of V. anguillarum of phenon I had negative reactions to the anti-k-2 factor serum. Conversely, V. anguillarum of phenon II all had positive reactions to the anti-k-2 factor serum. It became obvious that all the strains belonging to J-O-1 of phenon II possessed k-2 antigen but all of the strains belonging to J-O-1 of phenon I did not possess k-2 antigen.