Abstract
Vibrio cholerae undergoes a transition to a viable but non-culturable (VNC) state when subjected to various environmental stresses. We showed here that flagellar motility was involved in the development of the VNC state of V. cholerae. In this study, motility-defective isolates with mutations in various flagella-related genes, but not motile isolates, were predominantly obtained under the stress of long-term batch culture. Other genomic regions were highly conserved, suggesting that the mutations were selective. During the stationary phase of long-term culture, V. cholerae isolates with mutations in the acetate kinase and flagella-related genes were predominant. This study suggests that genes involved in specific functions in V. cholerae undergo mutations under certain environmental conditions.