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Background: Standard 24-locus Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing allows to get an improved resolution power for tracing TB transmission and predicting different strain (sub) lineages in a community. Methodology: During 2010–2012, a total of 168 Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) isolates were collected by cluster sampling from 10 different Moroccan cities, and centralized by the National Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis over the study period. All isolates were genotyped using spoligotyping, and a subset of 75 was genotyped using 24-locus based MIRU-VNTR typing, followed by first line drug susceptibility testing. Corresponding strain lineages were predicted using MIRU-VNTRplus database. Principal Findings: Spoligotyping resulted in 137 isolates in 18 clusters (2–50 isolates per cluster: clustering rate of 81.54%) corresponding to a SIT number in the SITVIT database, while 31(18.45%) patterns were unique of which 10 were labelled as “unknown” according to the same database. The most prevalent spoligotype family was LAM; (n = 81 or 48.24% of isolates, dominated by SIT42, n = 49), followed by Haarlem (23.80%), T superfamily (15.47%), >Beijing (2.97%), > U clade (2.38%) and S clade (1.19%). Subsequent 24-Locus MIRU-VNTR typing identified 64 unique types and 11 isolates in 5 clusters (2 to 3isolates per cluster), substantially reducing clusters defined by spoligotyping only. The single cluster of three isolates corresponded to two previously treated MDR-TB cases and one new MDR-TB case known to be contact a same index case and belonging to a same family, albeit residing in 3 different administrative regions. MIRU-VNTR loci 4052, 802, 2996, 2163b, 3690, 1955, 424, 2531, 2401 and 960 were highly discriminative in our setting (HGDI >0.6). Conclusions: 24-locus MIRU-VNTR typing can substantially improve the resolution of large clusters initially defined by spoligotyping alone and predominating in Morocco, and could therefore be used to better study tuberculosis transmission in a population-based, multi-year sample context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic diversity of 27 Moroccan pomegranate cultivars from three geographical regions of Morocco was screened using 61 Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers. Eight tested ISSR primers generated 70 bands of which 61 are polymorphic (87.14%). Nei's genetic distance ranged from (0.12 to 1) with a mean of 0.67. Nei genetic diversity parameters were 0.35 and 0.32 for H t and H s , respectively. Our results show considerable gene flow within and among pomegranate groups and a limited differentiation among groups as suggested by values of G st (0.08) and N m (5.80) parameters. The Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean dendrogram and Principal Component Analysis clustered the pomegranate studied into two main clusters and did not show any relationships with the geographical origins of cultivars. Our results showed that ISSR markers can be a useful tool for detecting molecular polymorphism and studying the genetic diversity of pomegranate genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A sample of 267 unrelated Moroccan males from different ethnic groups (Arabs, Berbers and Sahrawi), was typed for 17 Y-STR loci (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389 I, DYS389 II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, Y GATA H4). Discrimination capacity (96.3%) and haplotype diversity (99.91%) were calculated. A total of 257 haplotypes were identified, of which 237 were unique and 10 were found in two individuals each. DYS385 showed the highest diversity (0.887) followed by DYS458 (0.820) as a single locus marker. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]