IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis is the most widely applied method for strain differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. We have previously described mixed-linker PCR, an IS6110-based PCR method that favorably compared with other typing methods for M. tuberculosis complex according to reproducibility and ability to differentiate between strains. Here w...

An artificial neural network (ANN) was trained to distinguish between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. bovis with averaged pyrolysis mass spectra from duplicate subcultures of four strains of each of these species, each pyrolysed in triplicate. Once trained, the ANN was interrogated with spectrum data from the original organisms (the "training set") and from 26 other mycobacterial isolates (th...

Despite efforts to generate new vaccines and antibiotics for tuberculosis, the disease remains a public health problem worldwide. The zebrafish Danio rerio has emerged as a useful model to investigate mycobacterial pathogenesis and treatment. Infection of zebrafish with Mycobacterium marinum, the closest relative of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, recapitulates many aspects of human tub...

Seven outbreaks involving increasing numbers of banded mongoose troops and high death rates have been documented. We identified a Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex pathogen, M. mungi sp. nov., as the causative agent among banded mongooses that live near humans in Chobe District, Botswana. Host spectrum and transmission dynamics remain unknown.

We have compared the ability of the Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) system, a new culture method with an oxygen-sensitive fluorescent sensor, to recover mycobacteria from sputum samples with the abilities of egg-based medium and the Septi-Chek AFB system. We have also assessed the clinical utility of the AccuProbe or the AMPLICOR-PCR assay to directly identify Mycobacterium tuberculo...

Tuberculosis exerts a tremendous burden on global health, with approximately 9 million new infections and approximately 2 million deaths annually. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) was initially regarded as a highly homogeneous population; however, recent data suggest the causative agents of tuberculosis are more genetically and functionally diverse than appreciated previously. The i...

PCR amplification of a species-specific 2-kb KpnI fragment of variable size located 10 kb upstream of the katG gene was used to subdivide 130 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Seven subtypes were identified, and their frequencies were distributed normally with respect to the size of the amplified product.