title: Relatedness of Mycobacterium avium subspecies hominissuis clinical isolates of human and porcine origins assessed by MLVA.
abstract: Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH) is an important opportunistic pathogen, infecting humans and animals, notably pigs. Several methods have been used to characterize MAH strains. RFLP and PFGE typing techniques have been used as standard methods but are technically demanding. In contrast, the analysis of VNTR loci is a simpler, affordable and highly reliable PCR-based technique, allowing a numerical and reproductive digitalization of typing data. In this study, the analysis of Mycobacterium avium tandem repeats (MATRs) loci was adapted to evaluate the genetic diversity of epidemiological unrelated MAH clinical strains of human (n=28) and porcine (n=69) origins, collected from diverse geographical regions across mainland Portugal. These MAH isolates were found to be genetically diverse and genotypes are randomly distributed across the country. Some of the human strains shared identical VNTR profiles with porcine isolates. Our study shows that the VNTR genotyping using selected MATR loci is a useful analysis technique for assessing the genetic diversity of MAH isolates from Portugal. This typing method could be successfully applied in other countries toward the implementation of a worldwide open-access database of MATR-VNTR profiles of MAH isolates, allowing a better assessment of the global epidemiology traits of this important pathogenic species.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV, IP), Estrada de Benfica 701, 1549-011 Lisboa, Portugal; Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos (CREM), Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Célia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leão
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV, IP), Estrada de Benfica 701, 1549-011 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canto
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Micobactérias, Unidade de Microbiologia Médica, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical da Universidade Nova deLisboa (IHMT/UNL), Rua da Junqueira, 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos (CREM), Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ilda Santos
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Sanches
authors.affiliation: Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos (CREM), Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal; Grupo de Micobactérias, Unidade de Microbiologia Médica, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical da Universidade Nova deLisboa (IHMT/UNL), Rua da Junqueira, 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Couto
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Micobactérias, Unidade de Microbiologia Médica, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical da Universidade Nova deLisboa (IHMT/UNL), Rua da Junqueira, 100, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Viveiros
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV, IP), Estrada de Benfica 701, 1549-011 Lisboa, Portugal; School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, United Kingdom. Electronic address: joao.inacio@iniav.pt.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Inácio
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV, IP), Estrada de Benfica 701, 1549-011 Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: ana.botelho@iniav.pt.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Botelho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D009162:Mycobacterium avium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015269:Mycobacterium avium Complex / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D015270:Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission
keywords: MATR-VNTR typing; Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC); Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis; Mycobacterium avium tandem repeats; Nontuberculous mycobacteria; Opportunistic pathogens