Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The genome structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is strongly clonal, in the absence of horizontal gene transfer. Thus it is feasible that clonal lineages may exhibit particular phenotypic characteristics, which may, in turn, result in differences in virulence or influence their association with particular host populations. Indeed, the global distribution of M. tuberculosis strains is not uniform and certain strain lineages predominate in particular geographical areas. Further, there is evidence that some strain lineages are emerging, suggesting differences in virulence. Firstly, we investigated the association between strain genotype of M. tuberculosis and in vitro correlates of virulence such as growth phenotype and cytokine induction in the monocyte-derived macrophage (MDM) model.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/2719 |
Date | January 2013 |
Creators | Sarkar, Rajesh |
Contributors | Nicol, Mark, Wilkinson, R J |
Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, Division of Medical Microbiology |
Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
Format | application/pdf |
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