Evolutionary history and global spread of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing lineage.

Matthias Merker (1) , Camille Blin (2, 3) , Stefano Mona (3, 2) , Nicolas Duforet-Frebourg (4) , Sophie Lecher (5) , Eve Willery (5) , Michael G B Blum (4) , Sabine Rüsch-Gerdes (6) , Igor Mokrousov (7) , Eman Aleksic (8) , Caroline Allix-Béguec (9) , Annick Antierens (10) , Ewa Augustynowicz-Kopeć (11) , Marie Ballif (12) , Francesca Barletta (13) , Hans Peter Beck (14) , Clifton E Barry (15) , Maryline Bonnet (16) , Emanuele Borroni (17) , Isolina Campos-Herrero (18) , Daniela Cirillo (17) , Helen Cox , Suzanne Crowe (19, 8) , Valeriu Crudu , Roland Diel (20) , Francis Drobniewski (21, 22) , Maryse Fauville-Dufaux (23) , Sébastien Gagneux (24, 14) , Solomon Ghebremichael (25) , Madeleine Hanekom (26) , Sven Hoffner (25) , Wei-Wei Jiao (27) , Stobdan Kalon , Thomas A Kohl (1) , Irina Kontsevaya (28) , Troels Lillebæk , Shinji Maeda (29) , Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy (21) , Michael Rasmussen , Nalin Rastogi (30) , Sofia Samper (31) , Elisabeth Sanchez-Padilla , Branislava Savic , Isdore Chola Shamputa (32, 33) , Adong Shen (34) , Li-Hwei Sng (35) , Petras Stakenas , Kadri Toit , Francis Varaine (36) , Dragana Vukovic (37) , Céline Wahl (9) , Robin Warren (38) , Philip Supply (5, 9) , Stefan Niemann (39, 1) , Thierry Wirth (40, 2, 3)

1 Molecular Mycobacteriology
2 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
3 Laboratoire Biologie Intégrative des Population, Evolution Moléculaire
4 TIMC-IMAG-BCM - Biologie Computationnelle et Mathématique
5 CIIL - Centre d’Infection et d’Immunité de Lille - INSERM U 1019 - UMR 9017 - UMR 8204
6 National Reference Center for Mycobacteria
7 Institut Pasteur de Saint-Pétersbourg
8 Centre for Biomedical Research
9 genoscreen
10 Medical Department
11 Department of Microbiology
12 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine
13 Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Molecular Epidemiology Unit–Tuberculosis
14 MPI - Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology [Basel, Suisse]
15 LaRIA - Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique d'Amiens
16 Epicentre [Paris] [Médecins Sans Frontières]
17 Emerging Bacterial Pathogen Unit
18 hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Dr Negrin
19 Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research
20 LJAD - Laboratoire Jean Alexandre Dieudonné
21 PHE National Mycobacterial Reference Laboratory and Clinical TB and HIV Group
22 Division of Infectious Diseases
23 CNR - Centre national de Référence et Laboratoire Tuberculose et Mycobactéries = National Reference Centre of Tuberculosis and Mycobacteria [Brussels]
24 MRC National Institute for Medical Research
25 Department of Preparedness
26 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
27 Key Laboratory of Major Diseases in Children
28 Samara Oblast TB Service
29 Research institute of Tuberculosis
30 Institut Pasteur de la Guadeloupe
31 LARMAUR - LAboratoire de Recherche en Mécanique Appliquée
32 Mycobacteriology Unit
33 Microbiology Unit
34 III-V Lab - Alcatel-Thalès III-V lab
35 Central Tuberculosis Laboratory
36 Medecins Sans Frontieres - Medecins Sans Frontieres
37 DTU Fotonik - Department of Photonics Engineering
38 molecular biology and human genetics
39 Molecular Mycobacteriology Group
40 OSEB - Origine, structure et évolution de la biodiversité

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains of the Beijing lineage are globally distributed and are associated with the massive spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis in Eurasia. Here we reconstructed the biogeographical structure and evolutionary history of this lineage by genetic analysis of 4,987 isolates from 99 countries and whole-genome sequencing of 110 representative isolates. We show that this lineage initially originated in the Far East, from where it radiated worldwide in several waves. We detected successive increases in population size for this pathogen over the last 200 years, practically coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, the First World War and HIV epidemics. Two MDR clones of this lineage started to spread throughout central Asia and Russia concomitantly with the collapse of the public health system in the former Soviet Union. Mutations identified in genes putatively under positive selection and associated with virulence might have favored the expansion of the most successful branches of the lineage.

Domains: Santé publique et épidémiologie; Bacteriology

Matthias Merker, Camille Blin, Stefano Mona, Nicolas Duforet-Frebourg, Sophie Lecher, et al.. Evolutionary history and global spread of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing lineage.. Nature Genetics, 2015, 47 (3), pp.242-249. ⟨10.1038/ng.3195⟩. ⟨pasteur-01153552⟩