Abstract: Objective To study on molecular typing of 52 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates from the patients with tuberculosis in Anhui province by variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) method, and to evaluate the value of the genotyping method in genotyping of MTB. Methods Thirteen tandem repeat loci in the total genome of MTB were analyzed by PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis method. The character of the polymorphism of DNA fingerprinting of 52 MTB strains was analyzed with BioNumerics 3 0 software. Results The 52 MTB strains were finally classified into 4 genotypes. Most (88.5%) of them belonged to one genotype, the other three genotypes scattered, accounted for 5 8%, 3 8% and 1 9% strains, respectively. Conclusion The Results showed that there perhaps exists epidemic strain clusters in MTB strains from Anhui province. This fast and simple technique, VNTR method, is better molecular typing method for MTB Genotyping.

Key words: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Variable number of tandem repeats, Genotyping