title: Genetic biodiversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in India.
abstract: Spoligotyping was performed on 540 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in order to evaluate the genetic biodiversity of tubercle bacilli in India. One hundred and forty seven patterns were unique and 393 were grouped in 48 clusters. Comparison with an international spoligotype database showed that the most predominant clades among tuberculosis (TB) isolates were Central Asian (CAS) and East-African Indian (EAI) with shared-types (ST) ST26 and ST11 alone being responsible for 34% of all TB cases. Twenty one (3.8%) isolates belonged to the Beijing genotype. Marked variations were observed among circulating strains, STs belonging to CAS family predominated in the North, whereas the EAI family was more common in the Southern India. TB in India is predominantly caused by strains belonging to the principal genetic group 1 (PGG1), suggesting that most of the TB burden in India may be traced to ancestral clones of the tubercle bacilli. This study gives an insight into the global M. tuberculosis genetic biodiversity in India, the predominant spoligotypes and their impact on disease transmission.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. urvashi00@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Urvashi Balbir
authors.initials: UB
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Jyoti
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Naga
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.forename: Hema
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pant
authors.forename: Tanu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rana
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sola
authors.forename: Nalin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rastogi
authors.forename: Jitendra Nath
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Pande
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D044822:Biodiversity; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000382:microbiology*