title: Evolution of short sequence repeats in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
abstract: Whole genome comparison has revealed the presence of short sequence repeats (also called mycobacterial interspersed repeat units and variable number tandem repeat units) used for genotyping schemes. In this study, we have used deletion analysis, single nucleotide polymorphism data and spoligotype taken from published data from others to investigate the evolution of selected repeats that form the common denominators of the majority of established schemes. Analysis of the number of repeats per locus from over 400 isolates revealed that the general trend globally appears to be loss of repeats in modern strains compared with ancestral strains.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency, London, UK. catherine.arnold@hpa.org.uk
authors.forename: Cath
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thorne
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Underwood
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baster
authors.forename: Saheer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gharbia
mesh_terms: D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005838:Genotype; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017384:Sequence Deletion
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial