Substantial molecular evolution and mutation rates in prolonged latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in humans

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Lillebæk, Troels
  • Anders Norman
  • Erik Michael Rasmussen
  • Rasmus L. Marvig
  • Dorte Bek Folkvardsen
  • Åse Bengård Andersen
  • Lars Jelsbak

The genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) of latently infected individuals may hold the key to understanding the processes that lead to reactivation and progression to clinical disease. We report here analysis of pairs of Mtb isolates from putative prolonged latent TB cases. We identified two confirmed cases, and used whole genome sequencing to investigate the mutational processes that occur over decades in latent Mtb. We found an estimated mutation rate between 0.2 and 0.3 over 33 years, suggesting that latent Mtb accumulates mutations at rates similar to observations from cases of active disease.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Medical Microbiology
Volume306
Issue number7
Pages (from-to)580-585
Number of pages6
ISSN1438-4221
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2016
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Genome sequencing, Latent infection, Mutation rate, Pathogen evolution, Within-host evolution

ID: 247162283