TY - JOUR
T1 - Reference set of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical strains: a tool for research and product development
AU - Borrell, Sònia
AU - Trauner, Andrej
AU - Brites, Daniela
AU - Rigouts, Leen
AU - Loiseau, Chloe
AU - Coscolla, Mireia
AU - Niemann, Stefan
AU - de Jong, Bouke
AU - Yeboah-Manu, Dorothy
AU - Kato-Maeda, Midori
AU - Feldmann, Julia
AU - Reinhard, Miriam
AU - Beisel, Christian
AU - Gagneux, Sebastien
N1 - FTX; DOAJ; (CC BY 4.0)
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans and various other mammals. The human-adapted members of the MTBC comprise seven phylogenetic lineages that differ in their geographical distribution. There is growing evidence that this phylogeographic diversity modulates the outcome of TB infection and disease. For decades, TB research and development has focused on the two canonical MTBC laboratory strains H37Rv and Erdman, both of which belong to Lineage 4. Relying on only a few laboratory-adapted strains can be misleading as study results might not be directly transferrable to clinical settings where patients are infected with a diverse array of strains, including drug-resistant variants. Here, we argue for the need to expand TB research and development by incorporating the phylogenetic diversity of the MTBC. To facilitate such work, we have assembled a group of 20 genetically well-characterized clinical strains representing the seven known human-adapted MTBC lineages. With the "MTBC clinical strains reference set" we aim to provide a standardized resource for the TB community. We hope it will enable more direct comparisons between studies that explore the physiology of MTBC beyond the laboratory strains used thus far. We anticipate that detailed phenotypic analyses of this reference strain set will increase our understanding of TB biology and assist in the development of new control tools that are broadly effective.
AB - The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans and various other mammals. The human-adapted members of the MTBC comprise seven phylogenetic lineages that differ in their geographical distribution. There is growing evidence that this phylogeographic diversity modulates the outcome of TB infection and disease. For decades, TB research and development has focused on the two canonical MTBC laboratory strains H37Rv and Erdman, both of which belong to Lineage 4. Relying on only a few laboratory-adapted strains can be misleading as study results might not be directly transferrable to clinical settings where patients are infected with a diverse array of strains, including drug-resistant variants. Here, we argue for the need to expand TB research and development by incorporating the phylogenetic diversity of the MTBC. To facilitate such work, we have assembled a group of 20 genetically well-characterized clinical strains representing the seven known human-adapted MTBC lineages. With the "MTBC clinical strains reference set" we aim to provide a standardized resource for the TB community. We hope it will enable more direct comparisons between studies that explore the physiology of MTBC beyond the laboratory strains used thus far. We anticipate that detailed phenotypic analyses of this reference strain set will increase our understanding of TB biology and assist in the development of new control tools that are broadly effective.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0214088
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0214088
M3 - A1: Web of Science-article
C2 - 30908506
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 3
M1 - e0214088
ER -