OLIGONUCLEOTIDE (GTG)5 AS A MARKER FOR MYCOBACTERIUM-TUBERCULOSIS STRAIN IDENTIFICATION

Culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis provides no information on the i dentity of a strain or the distribution of such a strain in the commun ity. Strain identification of M. tuberculosis can help to address impo rtant epidemiological questions, e.g., the origin of an infection in a patient's household or community, whether reactivation of infection i s endogenous or exogenous in origin, and the spread and early detectio n of organisms with acquired antibiotic resistance. To research this p roblem, strain identification must be reliable and accurate. Although genetic identification techniques already exist, it is valuable to hav e genetic identification techniques based on a number of genetic marke rs to improve the accurate identification of M. tuberculosis strains. We show that oligonucleotide (GTG)(5) can he successfully applied to t he identification of M. tuberculosis strains. This technique may be pa rticularly useful in cases in which M. tuberculosis strains have few o r no insertion elements (e.g., IS6110) or in identifying other strains of mycobacteria when informative probes are lacking.