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Spoligotyping Profile Change Caused by Deletion of a Direct Variable Repeat in a Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isogenic Laboratory Strain

Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Received 23 February 2004/ Returned for modification 16 April 2004/ Accepted 23 June 2004

Spoligotyping is a major tool for molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex organisms. For epidemiological purposes, strains are considered clonal only when their spoligotyping patterns are identical. We report a change in the spoligotyping profiles of truly isogenic strains (a clinical isolate and a subculture derived in the laboratory) caused by deletion of a direct variable repeat. Without the information about the relationship between them, a link between these strains would have gone unnoticed. Evolutionary events should be taken into account in the interpretation of spoligotyping results and in the design of databases.

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