Department of Periodontology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2010 Jul;38(Web Server issue):W326-31. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkq351. Epub 2010 May 10.
Harmonized typing of bacteria and easy identification of locally or internationally circulating clones are essential for epidemiological surveillance and disease control. For Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) species, multi-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) targeting mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (MIRU) has been internationally adopted as the new standard, portable, reproducible and discriminatory typing method. However, no specialized bioinformatics web tools are available for analysing MLVA data in combination with other, complementary typing data. Therefore, we have developed the web application MIRU-VNTRplus (http://www.miru-vntrplus.org). This freely accessible service allows users to analyse genotyping data of their strains alone or in comparison with a reference database of strains representing the major MTBC lineages. Analysis and comparisons of genotypes can be based on MLVA-, spoligotype-, large sequence polymorphism and single nucleotide polymorphism data, or on a weighted combination of these markers. Tools for data exploration include search for similar strains, creation of phylogenetic and minimum spanning trees and mapping of geographic information. To facilitate scientific communication, an expanding genotype nomenclature (MLVA MtbC15-9 type) that can be queried via a web- or a SOAP-interface has been implemented. An extensive documentation guides users through all application functions.
细菌的同源分型和对本地或国际流行克隆的快速鉴定对于流行病学监测和疾病控制至关重要。对于结核分枝杆菌复合群（MTBC）物种，针对分枝杆菌插入重复单位（MIRU）的多位点可变数目串联重复分析（MLVA）已被国际采用为新的标准、便携、可重复和具有区分能力的分型方法。然而，目前还没有专门的生物信息学网络工具可用于结合其他互补的分型数据来分析 MLVA 数据。因此，我们开发了网络应用程序 MIRU-VNTRplus（http://www.miru-vntrplus.org）。这个免费的服务允许用户单独分析其菌株的基因分型数据，或与代表主要 MTBC 谱系的菌株参考数据库进行比较。基因型的分析和比较可以基于 MLVA、 spoligotype、大片段序列多态性和单核苷酸多态性数据，或基于这些标记的加权组合。数据探索工具包括搜索相似菌株、创建系统发育和最小生成树以及地理信息映射。为了促进科学交流，我们实现了一个可扩展的基因型命名法（MLVA MtbC15-9 型），可以通过网络或 SOAP 接口进行查询。广泛的文档指导用户使用所有应用程序功能。
