TABLE 7.
MIRU-VNTR loci used to subdivide each lineage into true clustered and true unique isolates
| Lineage (n) | No. of clusters | No. of clustered isolates | No. of unique isolates | MIRU-VNTR (no. of discrepancies)a | Additional MIRU-VNTR for total discrimination (no. of discrepancies)b |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I (36) | 6 | 27 | 9 | 16, 26, 27, 31 (4) | A (1) |
| A, 20 (0) | |||||
| II (245) | 30 | 120 | 125 | 4, 10, 16, 20, 23, 26, 27, 31, 39, 40, A, C (4) | B (2) |
| B, 2 (1) | |||||
| B, 2, 24 (0) | |||||
| III (100) | 15 | 63 | 37 | 10, 16, 26, 31, 39, 40, B (2) | 20 (1) |
| 20, 27 (0) | |||||
| IV (88) | 7 | 19 | 69 | 4, 10, 31, 39, A, B, 40 (2) | 23 (0) |
| M. bovis (49) | 5 | 10 | 39 | 23, 24, 26, 27, A, B (3) | Combination of two MIRU from 4, 31, and 39 (0) |
Numbers indicate MIRU (e.g., 16 stands for MIRU-16); letters indicate ETR (e.g., A stands for ETR-A). Isolates could initially be screened with a smaller panel of MIRU-VNTR in a resource-constrained laboratory wishing to produce a high level of intralineage discrimination for epidemiological purposes at a lower cost. This column shows the maximum number of MIRU-VNTR loci required to produce four or fewer discrepancies (i.e., isolates which are clustered by using a smaller panel of MIRU-VNTRs compared to clustering with all 15 MIRU-VNTR).
Additional MIRU-VNTR loci that would need to be added to the smaller panel to give the same level of intralineage discrimination of clustered isolates as the whole panel.