Lack of Insertional-Deletional Polymorphism in a Collection of Mycobacterium ulcerans Isolates from Ghanaian Buruli Ulcer Patients

Abstract

Mycobacterium ulcerans causes the devastating infectious skin disease Buruli ulcer and has a monomorphic population structure. The resolution of conventional genetic fingerprinting methods is therefore not sufficient for microepidemiological studies aiming to characterize transmission pathways. In a previous comparative genomic hybridization analysis with a microarray covering part of the M. ulcerans genome, we have found extensive insertional-deletional sequence polymorphisms among M. ulcerans isolates of diverse geographic origins that allowed us to distinguish between strains coming from different continents. Since large numbers of insertion sequences are spread over the genome of African..