Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium malmoense infections in Scotland.

Clinical isolates of Mycobacterium malmoense collected over 5 years from patients across Scotland with a variety of diseases have been characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), ribotyping, and 16S ribosomal DNA gene sequencing. Results indicate that this species harbors little genetic diversity band that the different strain types that were identified by PFGE showed no correlation with geographical origin or date of isolation.