Molecular characterization of Mycobacterium bovis BCG: Romanian sub-strain

The Romanian sub-strain used for BCG vaccine production was characterized by polymorphic GC-rich repetitive sequence (PGRS) restriction profile and IS6110 detection. For comparison, the Pasteur and Moscow Mycobacterium bovis BCG sub-strains, M. bovis AN5, and M. tuberculosis H37Rv were analyzed. The BCG sub-strains showed the same restriction profile for PGRS after Pvu II, BamH I and Sal I digestion. They could be distinguished from the strains M. bovis AN5 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv after Pvu II and Sal I digestion. Sal I can also distinguish between M. bovis AN5 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Digestion with Pvu II, Sal I, Sca I, Mlu I and BamH I gave identical profiles of IS6110 hybridization for the Romanian and Pasteur BCG substrains.