Comparative evaluation of band-based genotyping methods for Mycobacterium intracellulare and its application for epidemiological analysis

<em>Mycobacterium intracellulare</em> is a leading cause of nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease, with a rapidly increasing prevalence worldwide. This bacterium, commonly distributed in soil and water, is known to be transmitted through the environment rather than between people. Therefore, it is imperative to establish distinguishable genotyping methods to understand the clinical outcome, disease relapses, and epidemiology. Therefore, the present study comprised two steps. First, variable number tandem repetition (VNTR), VNTR-mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (VNTR-MIRU), repetitive sequence based-PCR (rep-PCR) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) as band-based genotyping methods were performed using 19 <em>M. intracellualre</em> isolated from patients with PD. The comparative results of genotyping techniques and geographical characteristics in this study may provide fundamental information for the epidemiology of <em>M. intracellulare</em>.