The variety and presence or absence of the mutations found suggest the circulation of an important diversity of strains and the existence of additional mechanisms contributing to streptomycin resistance in the region.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectocontagious respiratory disease caused by members
of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. A 7 base pair (bp)
deletion in the locus polyketide synthase
(pks)15/1 is described as polymorphic among members of the
M. tuberculosis complex, enabling the identification of
Euro-American, Indo-Oceanic and Asian lineages. The aim of this study was to
characterise this locus in TB isolates from Mexico. One hundred
twenty clinical isolates were recovered from the states of Veracruz and Estado
de Mexico. We determined the nucleotide sequence of a ± 400 bp fragment of the
locus pks15/1, while genotypic characterisation was
performed by spoligotyping. One hundred and fifty isolates contained the 7 bp
deletion, while five had the wild type locus. Lineages X (22%),
LAM (18%) and T (17%) were the most frequent; only three (2%) of the isolates
were identified as Beijing and two (1%) EAI-Manila. The wild type
pks15/1 locus was observed in all Asian lineage isolates
tested. Our results confirm the utility of locus pks15/1 as a
molecular marker for identifying Asian lineages of the M.
tuberculosis complex. This marker could be of great value in the
epidemiological surveillance of TB, especially in countries like Mexico, where
the prevalence of such lineages is unknown.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.