Whole-Genome Sequencing of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Manila Sublineage Results in Less Clustering and Better Resolution than Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive-Unit-Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) Typing and Spoligotyping

Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates of the Manila sublineage are genetically homogeneous. In this study, we used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to type a collection of 36 M. tuberculosis isolates of the Manila family. WGS enabled the subtyping of these 36 isolates into at least 10 distinct clusters. Our results indicate that WGS is a powerful approach to determining the relatedness of Manila family M. tuberculosis isolates.