Original Article Predominance of Central Asian and European families among Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Kashmir Valley, India Gulnaz Bashir a, * , Tehmeena Wani a , Pragya Sharma b , V.M. Katoch c,d , Rubina Lone e , Azra Shah f , Kiran Katoch b , D.K. Kakru a , Devendra Singh Chauhan b a Department of Microbiology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, India b Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, NJIL& OMD (ICMR), Tajganj, Agra, India c NASI-ICMR Chair on Public Health Research, Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, Jaipur, India d Former Secretary, Former Director General, Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India e Department of Microbiology, SKIMS Medical College, Bemina, Srinagar, India f Department of Pathology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, India i n d i a n j o u r n a l o f t u b e r c u l o s i s x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) x x x – x x x a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 November 2016 Accepted 11 May 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug susceptibility testing Spoligotyping MIRU-VNTR Kashmir Valley a b s t r a c t Background: As there are no data available regarding the strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis circulating in Kashmir Valley, India, the current study aimed at describing the genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis strains in this region, by spoligotyping and 12-locus-based MIRU- VNTR typing (Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number Tandem Repeat). Methods: Sputa from 207 smear positive cases with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculo- sis were subjected to culture for M. tuberculosis. Eighty-five isolates confirmed as M. tubercu- losis were subjected to drug susceptibility testing and molecular typing by spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTRs. Results: Drug susceptibility results of 72 isolates revealed 76.3% as fully sensitive while 5.5% as multidrug resistant (MDR). Spoligotyping of 85 isolates detected 42 spoligotypes with 50 isolates (58.8%) clustered into seven spoligotypes. SIT26/CAS1_Del was the major spoligo- type (23, 27%) followed by SIT127/H4 (12, 14.1%); CAS lineage (37.6%) was predominant, followed by Haarlem (25.8%) and ill-defined T clade (23.5%). MIRU-VNTR analysis displayed 82 MIRU patterns from 85 strains, including 3 small clusters and 79 unique. MIRU 26 was found to be the most discriminatory locus. Conclusions: Kashmir Valley has CAS as the predominant lineage of M. tuberculosis similar to the rest of the Indian sub-continent, while it is peculiar in having Euro American lineages such as Haarlem and ill-defined T clade. © 2017 Tuberculosis Association of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Department of Microbiology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, Kashmir, J&K, India. Tel.: +91 01942401013x2163; mob: +91 09419081260. E-mail address: gulnaz.bashir@skims.ac.in (G. Bashir). IJTB-201; No. of Pages 7 Please cite this article in press as: Bashir G, et al. Predominance of Central Asian and European families among Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Kashmir Valley, India, Indian J Tuberc. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtb.2017.05.004 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ indian-journal-of-tuberculosis/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtb.2017.05.004 0019-5707/© 2017 Tuberculosis Association of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.