Nature Communications (Apr 2023)

The relative transmission fitness of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a drug resistance hotspot

  • Chloé Loiseau,
  • Etthel M. Windels,
  • Sebastian M. Gygli,
  • Levan Jugheli,
  • Nino Maghradze,
  • Daniela Brites,
  • Amanda Ross,
  • Galo Goig,
  • Miriam Reinhard,
  • Sonia Borrell,
  • Andrej Trauner,
  • Anna Dötsch,
  • Rusudan Aspindzelashvili,
  • Rebecca Denes,
  • Klaus Reither,
  • Christian Beisel,
  • Nestani Tukvadze,
  • Zaza Avaliani,
  • Tanja Stadler,
  • Sebastien Gagneux

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37719-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Geographical hotspots with high frequency of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have been observed in several locations, such as the country of Georgia. Here, the authors analyse genomic sequences from tuberculosis bacteria isolated from Georgia to show that the transmission fitness of MDR-TB strains is heterogeneous, and highly drug-resistant and transmissible isolates contribute to the emergence and maintenance of MDR-TB hotspots.