Assessment of an optimized mycobacterial interspersed repetitive- unit-variable-number tandem-repeat typing system combined with spoligotyping for population-based molecular epidemiology studies of tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: An optimized set of 24 mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variable-number tandem-repeat (MIRU-VNTR) loci, including a discriminatory subset of 15 loci, has recently been defined for the typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we evaluated the performances of this MIRU-VNTR typing system in combination with spoligotyping for the detection of transmission chains in a population-based study comprising 91% of culture-confirmed tuberculosis patients reported in 2003 in Hamburg, Germany. Of the 154 isolates investigated, more than 90% had high IS6110 copy numbers (>/=6). IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing resulted in 13 clusters, 5 of which had a confirmed epidemiological link. All five, as well as six of the eight IS6110 clusters with no identified epidemi

SUBMITTER: Oelemann MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1829086 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature