Genetic Diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates from Inner Mongolia, China

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious public health problem in China, and within China, Inner Mongolia has a high prevalence area of TB. Though studies on the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) have been reported in many provinces, there are no such studies to date in Inner Mongolia. In this study, we investigated the genetic diversity of MTB in Inner Mongolia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, we analyzed 372 clinical MTB isolates with 22-loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit and variable-number tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR), spoligotyping, large sequence polymorphism (LSP), and NTF region analysis to understand the TB genotypes prevalent in Inner Mongolia. We found that the Beijing family was the most prevalent genotype (85.48%, 318/372), and the "modern" sublineage accounted for 76.73% (244/318) of the isolates. Our data also showed that there was no statistically significant association between the two major nationalities and the Beijing genotype (χ(2) = 3.612, P = 0.057; P>0.05). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE The Beijing genotype is the most prevalent family of M. tuberculosis in Inner Mongolia, and we do not find any correlation between the Beijing genotype and the major nationalities.