Successful expansion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Latin American and Mediterranean sublineage (L4.3/LAM) in Tunisia mainly driven by a single, long-established clonal complex.

Objectives: To explore the evolutionary history of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Latin American and Mediterranean (L4.3/LAM) sublineage in Tunisia, where it predominates.

Methods: High-resolution genotyping of 252 L4.

Automated IS6110-based fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Reaching unprecedented discriminatory power and versatility.

Background: Several technical hurdles and limitations have restricted the use of IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (IS6110 RFLP), the most effective typing method for detecting recent tuberculosis (TB) transmission events. This has prompted us to conceive an alternative modality, IS6110-5'3'FP, a plasmid-based cloning approach coupled to a single PCR amplification of differentially labeled 5' and 3' IS6110 polymorphic ends and their automated fractionation on a capillary sequencer. The potential of IS6110-5'3'FP to be used as an alternative to IS6110 RFLP has been previously demonstrated, yet further technical improvements are still required for optimal discriminatory power and versatility.