Genetic diversity and major spoligotype families of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from different regions of Turkey

PubMedID: 17462962 To highlight the transmission rate and major phylogenetic clades of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates, a total of 200 drug-resistant strains isolated in four different regions of Turkey (Marmara n = 81; Mediterranean n = 39; Aegean n = 42; East Anatolia n = 38), were typed by spoligotyping and IS6110-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The major spoligotyping-defined shared-types (STs) and corresponding lineages were, ST 41 (22.5%, LAM7-TUR), ST53 (19.5%, ill-defined T super-family), ST 50 (6.5%, Haarlem 3), ST 1261 (4.5%, LAM7-TUR), ST 47 (3.5%, Haarlem 1), as well as two STs that belonged to undefined clades (ST 284, 3%, and ST 2067, 2.5%). The global distribution of major M. tuberculosis lineages among drug-resistant strains was as follows: T super-family (29%), Latin-American & Mediterranean (33.5%), Haarlem (14%), and the S lineage (3%). A high number of strains (n = 29, 14.5%) showed patterns that did not fall within major clades described so far. A combination of spoligotyping and IS6110-RFLP fingerprinting methods resulted in a final clustering rate of 38.5% and a recent transmission rate of 25.5%. Our results underline the highly diverse nature of drug-resistant tuberculosis in our study population, as well as its ongoing transmission with lineages that are specific to these regions, the most predominant being the LAM7-TUR lineage which shows an enhanced phylogeographical specificity for Turkey. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T.Z. received a Ph.D. fellowship awarded by European Union and the Regional Council of Guadeloupe and the International Network of the Pasteur Institutes. The international database project coordinated by Institut Pasteur de Guadeloupe has benefited by an active feedback from various research groups worldwide and currently financed through the European Union and the Regional Council of Guadeloupe, which is greatly acknowledged.