Patent ID: 7592135

Claim:
A method for subtyping Mycobacterium tuberculosum comprising the steps of: amplifying VNTR (variable number tandem repeat) loci in Mycobacterium tuberculosum DNA present in a sample, said DNA having a sequence comprising at least two different VNTR loci, wherein the amplifying comprises amplifying the DNA by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) with different forward and reverse primer pairs to generate amplicons; determining a size of the amplicons by a rate of movement of the amplicons in an electric field; and comparing the size of each amplicon with a rate of movement in the electric field of a corresponding control amplicon PCR amplified from a VNTR locus for a known subtype of Mycobacterium tuberculosum, wherein the rate of movement of the amplicons similar to the rate of movement of the control amplicons in the electric field is indicative of a subtype of Mycobacterium tuberculosum in the sample.