Alternative genotyping of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains

The aim of the present research was to study the capability of a genotyping method for M. tuberculosis through detection of six VNTR-loci (MIRU10, MIRU26, MIRU31, MIRU39, MIRU40, ETR-A). Loci MIRU10, MIRU26, MIRU40 and ETR-A have exhibited high polymorphism in group non-Beijing, while loci MIRU26 and MIRU31 - in the Beijing family. A combined detection of all six loci for fingerprinting of the isolates both from Beijing and non-Beijing was highly effective (Hunter-Gaston index was 0.88 and 0.93 correspondently), especially in areas with limited financial resources and high prevalence of multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis strains.