The genomic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is limited. This makes the application of whole genome sequencing particularly attractive for clinical and epidemiological investigation. I investigated the suitability of WGS to supersede other DNA-based laboratory typing methods such as IS6110 RFLP and spoligotyping.

Selected references

The tempo and mode of molecular evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at patient-to-patient scale Anita C Schürch, Kristin Kremer, Albert Kiers, Olaf Daviena, Martin J Boeree, Roland J Siezen, Noel H Smith, Dick van Soolingen INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 10 (6), 805-805

Inferring patient to patient transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from whole genome sequencing data Josephine M Bryant, Anita C Schürch, Henk van Deutekom, Simon R Harris, Jessica L de Beer, Victor de Jager, Kristin Kremer, Sacha AFT van Hijum, Roland J Siezen, Martien Borgdorff, Stephen D Bentley, Julian Parkhill, Dick van Soolingen BMC infectious diseases 13 (1), 110

DNA fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: from phage typing to whole-genome sequencing Anita C Schürch, Dick van Soolingen Infection, Genetics and Evolution 12 (4), 602-609