TY - JOUR AU - Velji, Preya AU - Nikolayevskyy, Vladyslav AU - Brown, Timothy AU - Drobniewski, Francis T1 - Discriminatory Ability of Hypervariable Variable Number Tandem Repeat Loci in Population-based Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains, London, UK T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2009 VL - 15 IS - 10 SP - 1609 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To address conflicting results about the stability of variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci and their value in prospective molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we conducted a large prospective population-based analysis of all M. tuberculosis strains in a metropolitan setting. Optimal and reproducible conditions for reliable PCR and fragment analysis, comprising enzymes, denaturing conditions, and capillary temperature, were identified for a panel of hypervariable loci, including 3232, 2163a, 1982, and 4052. A total of 2,261 individual M. tuberculosis isolates and 265 sets of serial isolates were analyzed by using a standardized 15-loci VNTR panel, then an optimized hypervariable loci panel. The discriminative ability of loci varied substantially; locus VNTR 3232 varied the most, with 19 allelic variants and Hunter-Gaston index value of 0.909 unNN. Hypervariable loci should be included in standardized panels because they can provide consistent comparable results at multiple settings, provided the proposed conditions are adhered to. KW - Tuberculosis KW - tuberculosis and other mycobacteria KW - metropolitan area KW - bacterial genetics KW - genotyping KW - reproducibility KW - bacteria KW - London KW - research KW - United Kingdom DO - 10.3201/eid1510.090463 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/10/09-0463_article ER - End of Reference