Importance of the Genetic Diversity within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex for the Development of Novel Antibiotics and Diagnostic Tests of Drug Resistance

Despite being genetically monomorphic, the limited genetic diversity within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) has practical consequences for molecular methods for drug susceptibility testing and for the use of current antibiotics and those in clinical trials. It renders some representatives of MTBC intrinsically resistant against one or multiple antibiotics and affects the spectrum and consequences of resistance mutations selected...