Mycobacterium tuberculosis subsp. tuberculosis Genome sequencing

To understand transcontinental spread of MDR M. tuberculosis and the relative contributions of acquired and transmitted drug resistance, we studied WTK, a lineage 2 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain causing a MDR-TB outbreak within a refugee camp in Thailand and consecutive MDR-TB cases within sympatric communities in California, USA. We used whole genome sequencing to validate and expand ?ndings from infection-control teams in both settings. We mapped 46 genomic sequences from available isolates against the estimated most recent common MTBC ancestor (MRCA) and contextualized with 56 geographically distributed lineage 2 strains.