Rapid Detection and Simultaneous Strain Differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Bacteria by Spoligotyping

The discovery of polymorphic DNA in Mycobacterium tuberculosis has led to several methods to differentiate climcal isolates. The most widely used method is based on the mobility of the insertion element IS6110 , which is present in virtually all M tuberculosis isolates, usually in multiple copies. IS6110 -based fingerprinting has been extremely useful for epidemiological studies such as outbreak investigations, assessment of risk factors for recent transmissions, and for studying the dissemination of multiple drug resistant strains (1 ,2 ).