title: Associations between Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains and phenotypes.
abstract: To inform development of tuberculosis (TB) control strategies, we characterized a total of 2,261 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates by using multiple phenotypic and molecular markers, including polymorphisms in repetitive sequences (spoligotyping and variable-number tandem repeats [VNTRs]) and large sequence and single-nucleotide polymorphisms. The Beijing family was strongly associated with multidrug resistance (p = 0.0001), and VNTR allelic variants showed strong associations with spoligotyping families: >or=5 copies at exact tandem repeat (ETR) A, >or=2 at mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit 24, and >or=3 at ETR-B associated with the East African-Indian and M. bovis strains. All M. tuberculosis isolates were differentiated into 4 major lineages, and a maximum parsimony tree was constructed suggesting a more complex phylogeny for M. africanum. These findings can be used as a model of pathogen global diversity.
authors.affiliation: United Kingdom Health Protection Agency, London UK.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Vladyslav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nikolayevskyy
authors.forename: Preya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Velji
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Drobniewski
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000382:microbiology*