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Nature Research, Nature Genetics, 12(48), p. 1535-1543, 2016

DOI: 10.1038/ng.3704

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Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage 4 comprises globally distributed and geographically restricted sublineages

Journal article published in 2016 by David Stucki, Daniela Brites, Leïla Jeljeli, Mireia Coscolla ORCID, Qingyun Liu, Andrej Trauner, Lukas Fenner, Liliana Rutaihwa, Sonia Borrell, Tao Luo, Qian Gao, Midori Kato-Maeda, Marie Ballif ORCID, Matthias Egger, Rita Macedo ORCID and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Generalist and specialist species differ in the breadth of their ecological niches. Little is known about the niche width of obligate human pathogens. Here we analyzed a global collection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage 4 clinical isolates, the most geographically widespread cause of human tuberculosis. We show that lineage 4 comprises globally distributed and geographically restricted sublineages, suggesting a distinction between generalists and specialists. Population genomic analyses showed that, whereas the majority of human T cell epitopes were conserved in all sublineages, the proportion of variable epitopes was higher in generalists. Our data further support a European origin for the most common generalist sublineage. Hence, the global success of lineage 4 reflects distinct strategies adopted by different sublineages and the influence of human migration.