Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis and mechanisms of latency.
IPs: Sofía Samper and Isabel Otal.
By means of molecular genomic typing methods we are able to differentiate the different strains that are grouped together in the M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC); classify them into different lineages and analyze their evolution over time. This has numerous applications such as outbreak studies, differentiating recent transmission from reactivation, population studies and epidemiological surveillance. In this sense, with the aim of reducing the incidence rate of TB, we collaborate with Public Health of the Government of Aragon (the health authorities) typifying all the isolates in this autonomous community. Our team has coordinated the Network called “Spanish Working Group on Multiresistant TB”, aimed at detecting the possible spread of multidrug resistance in Spain in collaboration with the ECDC (Iglesias 2020). On the other hand, a study is also carried out of those strains that present greater transmissibility, that remain in a state of latency and are reactivated, and others that present some resistance are the object of a detailed study (Pérez-Lago et al. 2019; Comín 2020 ).
Using transposition mutagenesis to detect genes involved in latency, we have been able to isolate a mutant with new phenotypic characteristics and differentially expressed in stationary phase and in growth in cholesterol as the sole carbon source (Otal et al. 2017).