BACKGROUND Multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a major threat for global tuberculosis control. The W-Beijing Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotype has been associated with drug resistance. Elucidation of the mechanisms underlying this epidemiological finding may have an important role in the control of MDR-TB. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fitness of drug-susceptible and MDR ...

The Beijing/W lineage strains are the major prevalent strains in China. The prevalence, mortality and drug-resistant rates of tuberculosis in Xinjiang, Northwestern China are higher than in other parts of the country. Our previous study results showed that the dominant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) were 'Beijing/W lineage' MTB in Xinjiang; those strains had no significant correlat...

Beijing family strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis have attracted worldwide attention because of their wide geographical distribution and global emergence. Peru, which has a historical relationship with East Asia, is considered to be a hotspot for Beijing family strains in South America. We aimed to unveil the genetic diversity and transmission characteristics of the Beijing strains in Peru. ...

Strains of the Beijing/W genotype family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis have caused large outbreaks of tuberculosis, sometimes involving multidrug resistance. This genetically highly conserved family of M. tuberculosis strains predominates in some geographic areas. We have conducted a systematic review of the published reports on these strains to determine their worldwide distribution, spread, a...

A collection of 119 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in the Archangel Oblast, Russia, in 1998 and 1999 were studied by using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis with the IS6110 probe and spoligotyping. Resistance of the strains to antituberculosis drugs was analyzed by the BACTEC method, and mutations associated with r...

BACKGROUND Beijing genotype strains are the most predominant strains in China. The aim of this study was to explore risk factors and clinical phenotypes associated with infection with Beijing genotype strains among tuberculosis patients in China. METHODS Using data and strains derived from the first Chinese national drug resistance base-line survey, we performed a statistical analysis of the ...

Tuberculosis incidence rates in Kiribati are among the highest in the Western Pacific Region, however the genetic diversity of circulating Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains (MTBC) and transmission dynamics are unknown. Here, we analysed MTBC strains isolated from culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) cases from the main TB referral centre between November 2007 and October 2009. ...

Liu et al. (8) assessed the usefulness of five mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit (MIRU) loci and RD105 deletiontargeted multiplex PCR (DTM-PCR) (1) to predict M. tuberculosis Beijing strains. They concluded that negative amplification of Mtub02 had sensitivity and specificity comparable to that of DTM-PCR. Mtub02 is a 9-bp repeated sequence that is located 21 bp downstream of the ATG c...

This study aimed to characterize the population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Pskov oblast in northwestern Russia, to view it in the geographical context, to compare drug resistance properties across major genetic families. Ninety M. tuberculosis strains from tuberculosis (TB) patients, permanent residents in Pskov oblast were subjected to LAM-specific IS6110-PCR and spoligotyping,...

Rao et al. (3) described a method to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains of the Beijing genotype. The authors suggested using simple PCR of mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit–variable-number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) locus 26 to identify these strains. This suggestion is based on the authors’ assumption that MIRU locus 26 has a specific seven-copy signature in these strains. Rao...