The population structure of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Sichuan in China

► We observed a more diverse population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from Sichuan. ► Beijing lineage was the predominant and largest group of MDR-TB. ► Non-Beijing lineages also accounted for the high level of prevalence of MDR-TB in Sichuan. ► Twenty four-locus MIRU-VNTR presented an excellent discriminatory power (HGI = 0.999).