BACKGROUND We estimate the proportion of tuberculosis (TB) in England due to recent household transmission, identify factors associated with being a household transmitter, and investigate the impact that identification of a case has on time to treatment of subsequent cases. METHODS TB cases notified between 2010 and 2012 in England in the same household as another case were identified; 24 loc...

Tuberculosis incidence among aborigines is significantly higher than for Han Chinese in Taiwan, but the extent to which Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strain characteristics contribute to this difference is not well understood. MTB isolates from aborigines and Han Chinese living in eastern and southern Taiwan, the major regions of aborigines, were analyzed by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VN...

Fifty-two multidrug-resistant isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis representative of the currently predominant lineages in France were analyzed using repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) DiversiLab (DL), spoligotyping, 24-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variable-number tandem-repeat typing (MIRU-VNTR), and restriction fragment length polymorphism of IS6110 (IS6110-RFLP). D...

BACKGROUND The national tuberculosis strain typing service (TB-STS) was introduced in England in 2010. The TB-STS involves MIRU-VNTR typing of isolates from all TB patients for the prospective identification, reporting and investigation of TB strain typing clusters. As part of a mixed-method evaluation, we report on a repeated cross-sectional survey to illustrate the challenges surrounding the ...

BACKGROUND The MIRU-VNTR polymorphism and katG463 mutation are used to genotype the mycobacterium tuberculosis, but the correlation between them and INH-resistance were unknown. This study was aimed to explore whether ETRE polymorphism and katG463 mutation could predict the INH-resistance, and the relationship between ETRE polymorphism and katG463 mutation. METHODS The ETRE, katG463 mutation ...

BACKGROUND The incidence of TB in Michigan was 1.5 per 100,000 people in 2012, roughly half the U.S. incidence. Despite successes in TB control, disparities in TB still exist in Michigan, particularly by race, age, and nativity. A major challenge in understanding disparities in TB burden is distinguishing between TB cases resulting from recent transmission and those resulting from reactivation ...

BACKGROUND Genotyping methods are useful tools to provide information on tuberculosis epidemic. They can allow a better response from health authorities and the implementation of measures for tuberculosis control. This study aimed to identify the main lineages and clades of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains circulating in Côte d'Ivoire. METHODS/MAIN FINDINGS Strains isolated from spu...

Objectives. We studied the genetic diversity of clinical isolates from patients with tuberculosis in the multiethnic area of Xinjiang autonomous region in China. A total of 311 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates were collected in 2006 and 2011 and genotyped by two genotyping methods. All isolates were grouped into 68 distinct spoligotypes using the spoligotyping method. The Beijing family was do...

Traditional sequence comparison by alignment applies a mutation model comprising two events, substitutions and indels (insertions or deletions) of single positions (SI). However, modern genetic analysis knows a variety of more complex mutation events (e.g., duplications, excisions and rearrangements), especially regarding DNA. With the ever more DNA sequence data becoming available, the need to...

Polymorphic regions consisting of a variable number of tandem repeats within intron 2 of the gene coding for the serotonin transporter protein 5-HTT have been associated with susceptibility to affective disorders. We have cloned two of these intronic polymorphisms, Stin2.10 and Stin2.12, into an expression vector containing a heterologous minimal promoter and the bacterial LacZ reporter gene. T...