Observational studyEBioMedicine2018
A Quantitative Evaluation of MIRU-VNTR Typing Against Whole-Genome Sequencing for Identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transmission: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study.
Observational study in EBioMedicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reporting practices for genomic epidemiology of tuberculosis: a systematic review of the literature using STROME-ID guidelines as a benchmark.The Lancet. Microbe · 2021Pooled it
- Quantifying TB transmission: a systematic review of reproduction number and serial interval estimates for tuberculosis.Epidemiology and infection · 2018Pooled it
- Whole-Genome Sequence-Based Diversity ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: a review of current methods, databases, softwares, and analytical tools.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Parapipe: a pipeline for parasite next-generation sequencing data analysis applied to Cryptosporidium.Access microbiology · 2025Article
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- Article
- Bridging the gap between molecular and genomic epidemiology in tuberculosis: inferring MIRU-VNTR patterns from genomic data.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- A Genome-Focused Investigation Reveals the Emergence of aMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Genetic Characterization and Population Structure of Drug-ResistantAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Performance evaluation of core genome multilocus sequence typing for genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in China: based on multicenter, population-based collection.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2024Article
- Genetic diversities ofAccess microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Unraveling tuberculosis patient cluster transmission chains: integrating WGS-based network with clinical and epidemiological insights.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- fastlin: an ultra-fast program for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex lineage typing.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Review
- The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome at 25 years: lessons and lingering questions.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Review
- Molecular epidemiology and transmission dynamics of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis strains using whole genome sequencing in the Amhara region, Ethiopia.BMC genomics · 2023Article
- TransFlow: a Snakemake workflow for transmission analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis whole-genome sequencing data.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing is widely used in high-income countries to determine Mycobacterium tuberculosis relatedness. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is known to deliver greater specificity, but no quantitative prospective comparison has yet been undertaken.
methodsWe studied isolates from the English Midlands, sampled consecutively between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015. In addition to routinely performed MIRU-VNTR typing, DNA was extracted from liquid cultures and sequenced using Illumina technology. Demographic and epidemiological data for the relevant patients were extracted from the Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance system run by Public Health England. Closely related samples, defined using a threshold of five single nucleotide variants (SNVs), were compared to samples with identical MIRU-VNTR profiles, to samples from individuals with shared epidemiological risk factors, and to those with both characteristics.
findings1999 patients were identified for whom at least one M. tuberculosis isolate had been MIRU-VNTR typed and sequenced. Comparing epidemiological risk factors with close genetic relatedness, only co-residence had a positive predictive value of over 5%. Excluding co-resident individuals, 18.6% of patients with identical MIRU-VNTR profiles were within 5 SNVs. Where patients also shared social risk factors and ethnic group, this rose to 48%. Only 8% of MIRU-VNTR linked pairs in lineage 1 were within 5 SNV, compared to 31% in lineage 4.
interpretationIn the setting studied, this molecular epidemiological study shows MIRU-VNTR typing and epidemiological risk factors are poorly predictive of close genomic relatedness, assessed by SNV. MIRU-VNTR performance varies markedly by lineage.
fundingPublic Health England, Health Innovation Challenge Fund, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit Oxford, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.
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Registered trials
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