Clonal expansion across the seas as seen through CPLP-TB database: A joint effort in cataloguing Mycobacterium tuberculosis genetic diversity in Portuguese-speaking countries

João Perdigão (1) , Carla Silva (1) , Jaciara Diniz (2) , Catarina Pereira (1) , Diana Machado (3) , Jorge Ramos (3) , Hugo Silva (1) , Fernanda Abilleira (2) , Clarice Brum (2) , Ana J Reis (2) , Maíra Macedo (2) , João L Scaini (2) , Anna B Silva (2) , Leonardo Esteves (4) , Rita Macedo (5) , Fernando Maltez (6) , Sofia Clemente (7) , Elizabeth Coelho (8) , Sofia Viegas (8) , Paulo Rabna (9) , Amabélia Rodrigues (9) , Nuno Taveira (10, 1) , Luísa Jordao (5) , Afrânio Kritski (11) , José R Lapa E Silva (12) , Igor Mokrousov (13) , David Couvin (14) , Nalin Rastogi (14) , Isabel Couto (3) , Arnab Pain (15) , Ruth Mcnerney (16) , Taane Clark (17) , Andrea von Groll (2) , Elis R Dalla-Costa (4) , Maria Lúcia Rossetti (4) , Pedro E.A. Silva (18) , Miguel Viveiros (3) , Isabel Portugal (1)

1 Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa
2 FURG - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
3 NOVA - Universidade Nova de Lisboa = NOVA University Lisbon
4 CDCT - Centro de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [Porto Alegre]
5 INSA - Instituto Nacional de Saùde Dr Ricardo Jorge [Portugal]
6 Hospital Curry Cabral [Lisbon, Portugal]
7 Hospital da Divina Providência [Luanda]
8 Ministry of Health [Mozambique]
9 Institut national de santé publique [Bisseau]
10 Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz [Portugal]
11 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
12 Institute of Thoracic Diseases
13 Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics [St. Petersburg, Russia]
14 Unité de la Tuberculose et des Mycobactéries - WHO Supranational TB Reference Laboratory
15 KAUST - King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
16 University of Cape Town
17 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
18 ULBRA - Universidade Luterana do Brasil

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem within the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP). Despite the marked variation in TB incidence across its member-states and continued human migratory flux between countries, a considerable gap in the knowledge on the Mycobacterium tuberculosis population structure and strain circulation between the countries still exists. To address this, we have assembled and analysed the largest CPLP M. tuberculosis molecular and drug susceptibility dataset, comprised by a total of 1447 clinical isolates, including 423 multidrug-resistant isolates, from five CPLP countries. The data herein presented reinforces Latin American and Mediterranean (LAM) strains as the hallmark of M. tuberculosis popu-lational structure in the CPLP coupled with country-specific differential prevalence of minor clades. Moreover, using high-resolution typing by 24-loci MIRU-VNTR, six cross-border genetic clusters were detected, thus supporting recent clonal expansion across the Lusophone space. To make this data available to the scientific community and public health authorities we developed CPLP-TB (available at http://cplp-tb.ff.ulisboa.pt), an online database coupled with web-based tools for exploratory data analysis. As a public health tool, it is expected to contribute to improved knowledge on the M. tuberculosis population structure and strain circulation within the CPLP, thus supporting the risk assessment of strain-specific trends.

Keywords: Drug resistance; Tuberculosis; Spoligotyping; MIRU-VNTR; Migration; Mycobacteria; LAM

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Bacteriology; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

João Perdigão, Carla Silva, Jaciara Diniz, Catarina Pereira, Diana Machado, et al.. Clonal expansion across the seas as seen through CPLP-TB database: A joint effort in cataloguing Mycobacterium tuberculosis genetic diversity in Portuguese-speaking countries. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 2019, Molecular aspects of mycobacteril infections, 72, pp.44-58. ⟨10.1016/j.meegid.2018.03.011⟩. ⟨pasteur-01986661⟩