ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN INSERTION ELEMENT-LIKE REPETITIVE SEQUENCE-SPECIFIC FOR MYCOBACTERIUM-TUBERCULOSIS COMPLEX

We report the characterization of an insertion-like repetitive sequenc e containing the clone of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This repetitive sequence contains seven inverted repeats. Restriction fragment length polymorphism studies using this probe have shown that it is not a high ly polymorphic probe but rather shows conservative fingerprint pattern . Out of the 150 strains tested, only three showed different fingerpri nt patterns. It has several direct and inverted repeats. Hormology stu dies of the putative protein coding region show that this repeat eleme nt might code for a metalloproteinase of M. tuberculosis. Homology stu dies also implicate this repeat element to be from a very essential re gion of the M. tuberculosis genome participating in recombination. Thi s repeat has been found to be an ideal target for polymerase chain rea ction to detect M. tuberculosis.