National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Miaoli, Taiwan.
PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43018. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043018. Epub 2012 Aug 24.
We present the first comprehensive analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates circulating in the Kaohsiung region of southern Taiwan. The major spoligotypes found in the 224 isolates studied were Beijing lineages (n = 97; 43.3%), EAI lineages (n = 72; 32.1%) and Haarlem lineages (n = 18; 8.0%). By 24 MIRU-VNTR typing, 174 patterns were identified, including 24 clusters of 74 isolates and 150 unique patterns. The combination of spoligotyping and 12-MIRU-VNTR revealed that 129 (57.6%) of the 224 isolates were clustered in 18 genotypes. Moreover, 63.6% (7/11) of infected persons younger than 30 years had a Beijing strain, which could suggest recent spread among younger persons by this family of TB strains in Kaohsiung. Among the 94 Beijing family (SIT1, SIT250 and SIT1674) isolates further analyzed for SNPs by mass spectrometry, the most frequent strain found was ST10 (n = 49; 52%), followed by ST22 (n = 17; 18%) and ST19 (n = 11; 12%). Among the EAI-Manila family isolates analyzed by region deletion-based subtyping, the most frequent strain found was RD type 1 (n = 63; 87.5%), followed by RD type 2 (n = 9; 12.5%). In our previous study, the proportion of modern Beijing strains (52.5%) in northern Taiwan was significantly higher than the proportion of EAI strains (11%). In contrast, in the present study, EAI strains comprised up to 32% of Beijing strains in southern Taiwan. In conclusion, both 'modern' (Beijing) and 'ancient' (EAI) M. tuberculosis strains are prevalent in the Kaohsiung region, perhaps suggesting that both strains are somehow more adapted to southern Taiwan. It will be interesting to investigate the dynamics of the lineage composition by different selection pressures.
我们呈现了首次对台湾南部高雄地区循环的结核分枝杆菌分离株的全面分析。在研究的 224 株分离株中发现的主要 spoligotype 是北京谱系（n = 97；43.3%）、EAI 谱系（n = 72；32.1%）和 Haarlem 谱系（n = 18；8.0%）。通过 24 个 MIRU-VNTR 分型，鉴定出 174 种模式，包括 74 株的 24 个簇和 150 个独特模式。 spoligotyping 和 12-MIRU-VNTR 的组合表明，224 株分离株中的 129 株（57.6%）聚类在 18 种基因型中。此外，63.6%（7/11）的 30 岁以下感染者感染了北京株，这可能表明在高雄，这种结核菌株家族在年轻人中最近传播。在进一步通过质谱法对 94 株北京家族（SIT1、SIT250 和 SIT1674）分离株的 SNP 进行分析后，发现最常见的菌株是 ST10（n = 49；52%），其次是 ST22（n = 17；18%）和 ST19（n = 11；12%）。在对基于区域缺失的亚型分析的 EAI-Manila 家族分离株中，发现最常见的菌株是 RD 型 1（n = 63；87.5%），其次是 RD 型 2（n = 9；12.5%）。在我们之前的研究中，台湾北部现代北京株（52.5%）的比例明显高于 EAI 株（11%）。相比之下，在本研究中，EAI 株在台湾南部占北京株的 32%。总之，现代（北京）和古代（EAI）结核分枝杆菌菌株在高雄地区都很流行，这表明这两种菌株在某种程度上更适应台湾南部。有趣的是，通过不同的选择压力来研究谱系组成的动态变化。
