How dormant is Mycobacterium tuberculosis during latency? A study integrating genomics and molecular epidemiology

Zhenhua Yang, Mariana Rosenthal, Noah A Rosenberg, Sarah Talarico, Lixin Zhang, Carl Marrs, Vibeke Østergaard Thomsen, Troels Lillebaek, Åse Bengård Andersen

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis may survive for decades in the human body in a state termed latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). We investigated the occurrence during LTBI of insertion/deletion events in a selected set of mononucleotide simple sequence repeats, DNA sequence changes in four M. tuberculosis genes, and large sequence variations in 4750 M. tuberculosis open reading frames. We studied 13 paired M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, with each pair representing a reactivation of LTBI more than three decades after primary infection. Absence of sequence variations between paired isolates in nearly all investigated loci suggests a low likelihood of bacterial replication during LTBI.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalInfection, Genetics and Evolution
    Volume11
    Issue number5
    Pages (from-to)1164-1167
    Number of pages4
    ISSN1567-1348
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 18 Feb 2011

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