Limited data are available regarding the molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains circulating in Guatemala. Beijing-lineage Mtb strains have gained prevalence worldwide and are associated with increased virulence and drug resistance, but there have been only a few cases reported in Central America. Here we report the first whole genome sequencing of Central American Be...

Strains of the Beijing genotype family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are a cause of particular concern because of their increasing dissemination in the world and their association with drug resistance. Phylogenetically, this family includes distinct ancient and modern sublineages. The modern strains, contrary to the ancestral counterparts, demonstrated increasing prevalence in many world region...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in Xinjiang is higher than in other regions of China, and Beijing/W lineage Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the dominant strain of MTB in Xinjiang. However, information on multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB, particularly the correlation between MDR and the Beijing/W lineage and the correlation betwe...

BACKGROUND The Beijing family is a successful group of M. tuberculosis strains, often associated with drug resistance and widely distributed throughout the world. Polymorphic genetic markers have been used to type particular M. tuberculosis strains. We recently identified a group of polymorphic DNA repair replication and recombination (3R) genes. It was shown that evolution of M. tuberculosis c...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Phospholipase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis plays an important role in pathogenesis through breaking up phospholipids and production of diacylglycerol. In this study, we examined the Beijing strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from Iranian patients for the genes encoding this enzyme. MATERIALS AND METHODS DNA extraction was performed using CTAB (cetyltrime...

BACKGROUND Investigation of the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in China has shown that Beijing genotype strains play a dominant role in the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. In order to examine the strain diversity in the whole country, and to study the evolutionary development of Beijing strains, we sought to genotype a large collection of isolates using different methods. METHODO...

Beijing strains possess unique properties such as, multi-drug resistance, evasion of BCG vaccination and disseminating at a greater rate than nonBeijing strains. Various methods exist for the detection of Beijing strains such as, RFLP or spoligotyping; however, these methods require established cultures and DNA isolated in High concentration. Relatively newer methods such as, MIRU VNTR, are mor...

Beijing/W strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are geographically widespread and hypervirulent. To enhance our understanding of their origin and evolution, we sought phylogenetically informative large sequence polymorphisms (LSPs) within the Beijing/W family. Comparative whole-genome hybridization of Beijing/W strains revealed 21 LSPs, 7 of which were previously unreported. We show that some o...

INTRODUCTION Central Asian Strain 1 (CAS1) is the predominant Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotype in Pakistan. The occurrence of deletions in regions of differences (RDs) among CAS1 and other predominant genogroups in the country were investigated. METHODOLOGY Using stratified random sampling, 235 M. tuberculosis (185 pulmonary; 50 extrapulmonary) strains were selected from 926 previously spo...