Abstract
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Beijing strain is highly virulent, drug resistant, and endemic over Asia. To explore the genetic diversity of this family in several different regions of eastern Asia, 338 Beijing strains collected in Taiwan (Republic of China) were analyzed by mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing and compared with published MIRU-VNTR profiles and by the Hunter-Gaston diversity index (HGDI) of Beijing strains from Japan and South Korea. The results revealed that VNTR2163b (HGDI>0.6) and five other loci (VNTR424, VNTR4052, VNTR1955, VNTR4156 and VNTR 2996; HGDI>0.3) could be used to discriminate the Beijing strains in a given geographic region. Analysis based on the number of VNTR repeats showed three VNTRs (VNTR424, 3192, and 1955) to be phylogenetically informative loci. In addition, to determine the geographic variation of sequence types in MTB populations, we also compared sequence type (ST) data of our strains with published ST profiles of Beijing strains from Japan and Thailand. ST10, ST22, and ST19 were found to be prevalent in Taiwan (82%) and Thailand (92%). Furthermore, classification of Beijing sublineages as ancient or modern in Taiwan was found to depend on the repeat number of VNTR424. Finally, phylogenetic relationships of MTB isolates in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan were revealed by a minimum spanning tree based on MIRU-VNTR genotyping. In this topology, the MIRU-VNTR genotypes of the respective clusters were tightly correlated to other genotypic characters. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that clonal evolution of these MTB lineages has occurred.
Highlights
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious and deadly disease in many parts of the world
Among the most prevalent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains worldwide is the Beijing genotype, which has spread from its origin in Asia to countries of the former Soviet Union, Europe, Africa and the United States, often in association with hypervirulence and multiple drug resistance [1,2,3,4,5]
A total of 338 Beijing strains was collected from 5 general hospitals located in four geographical regions of Taiwan, including northern (Taipei Tri-Service General Hospital), eastern (Mennonite Christian Hospital), central (Wan-Chiao Hospital) and southern regions
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious and deadly disease in many parts of the world. Our previous studies reported that the Beijing genotypes in the Taipei region of Taiwan mainly belong to the modern subfamily To better understand the extent of geographic variation of the sequence types in MTB isolate populations, we analyzed the ST profiles of Beijing strains from Taiwan (present study)
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