We thank Luo et al. for their comments on our previous paper describing the usefulness of mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit (MIRU) PCR amplification in rapid diagnosis of Beijing lineage strain infections among pediatric tuberculosis patients (4). We agree that the negative results of Mtub2 amplification in Beijing strains might be explained by the deletion of RD105 in Beijing strains,...

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health concerns in Assam, a remote state located in the northeastern (NE) region of India. The present study was undertaken to explore the circulating genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in this region. A total of 189 MTBC strains were collected from smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases from different designated microscopy c...

We describe the population structure of a representative collection of 3,133 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, collected within the framework of a national resistance survey from 2007 in China. Genotyping data indicate that the epidemic strains in China can be divided into seven major complexes, of which 92% belonged to the East Asian (mainly Beijing strains) or the Euro-American lineage. Th...

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 ...

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...

To characterize genetic variation of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) transmitted in the Beijing area during the epidemic outbreak of 2003, we sequenced 29 full-length S genes of SARS-CoV from 20 hospitalized SARS patients on our unit, the Beijing 302 Hospital. Viral RNA templates for the S-gene amplification were directly extracted from raw clinical samples, ...

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans and other animal species, but Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a distinct host preference to humans. The present study aimed to determine whether a bovine M. tb strain 1458 has evolved some genetic properties in their genome that might be associated with their bovine adaptation. The genome of the M. tb strain 1458 was seque...

To the Editor: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) Beijing genotype is spread throughout the world, and the highest prevalence has been detected in Asia and Eurasia. In western Europe, the prevalence of Beijing strains is relatively low (1–3), and cases in immigrants with Beijing strains are mainly Asian in origin. In Spain, the last few years have been a key period for infectious diseases because...