Molecular epidemiology of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been extensively used for investigating epidemics of multidrug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, in order to identify the factors involved in the transmission of such strains and determine effective control programmes to limit their expansion at both the individual and population levels. Here, we review the methods currently used to study the molecular epidemiology of multidrug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains, and the insights provided by these techniques regarding global trends and the transmission dynamics of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis at a world scale.