Genotyping and drug resistance patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains observed in a tuberculosis high-burden municipality in Northeast, Brazil.

Objectives: This study has used a combination of clinical information, spoligotyping, and georeferencing system to elucidate the genetic diversity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates circulating in a TB-prevalent municipality of Northeast Brazil.

Methods: A total of 115 M. tuberculosis strains were isolated from pulmonary tuberculosis patients from January 2007 to March 2008 in Fortaleza.

Mycobacterium fragae sp. nov., a non-chromogenic species isolated from human respiratory specimens.

Three isolates of a slow-growing, non-chromogenic mycobacterium were grown from three sputum samples of a patient from the north-eastern Ceará state in Brazil. Identification at species level could not be obtained with PCR restriction analysis of the hsp65 gene. In order to characterize the isolates we carried out phenotypic and genotypic tests.