AUTHOR=Singh Ravipaul , Withey Jeffrey H. 
  
TITLE=Updated functional annotation of the Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor str. N16961 reference genome
  
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bacteriology
  
VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2026
  
YEAR=2026
  
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bacteriology/articles/10.3389/fbrio.2026.1833038
  
DOI=10.3389/fbrio.2026.1833038
  
ISSN=2813-6144
  
ABSTRACT=The ubiquitous aquatic bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, is the causative agent of the human diarrheal disease cholera, which occurs through the consumption of contaminated food or water and can lead to potentially fatal outcomes. The V. cholerae genome contains two nonhomologous chromosomes that are ~2.96 Mbp and ~1.07 Mbp, respectively. Here we report a complete, updated comparative analysis of the functional annotations for the V. cholerae genome. Available genomic sequencing data from the original analysis in 2000 was compared to the updated genomic sequence in 2026 for the O1 El Tor str. N16961. The classification of genes as ‘hypothetical protein’ or ‘conserved hypothetical protein’ has dropped from over 40% in 2000 to ~5.7% as of 2026. Additional protein-protein blast comparisons performed for this study provide potential roles for ~38.5% of the remaining hypothetical proteins as of 2026. In combination, these changes highlight the progress made over the past quarter century. We present this analysis as an easily usable resource that allows the user to search for and compare the changes, if any, to the functional annotations of the over 3500 protein-coding genes present in the V. cholerae O1 El Tor str. N16961 genome.