International Mycoplasma pneumoniae typing study: interpretation of M. pneumoniae multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis.

Chalker VJ1, Pereyre S2, Dumke R3, Winchell J4, Khosla P1, Sun H5, Yan C5, Vink C6, Bébéar C2.

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Abstract

Typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) is increasingly in use. However, no specific internationally agreed guidance is available. Thirty M. pneumoniae DNA samples including serial dilutions of a type strain were sent to six international laboratories to perform MLVA and results were compared. Good correlation was observed, indicating that this methodology can be robustly performed in multiple sites. However, differences due to interpretation of fragment size, repeat sequence identification and repeat numbering led to inconsistency in the final profiles assigned by laboratories. We propose guidelines for interpreting M. pneumoniae MLVA typing and assigning the number of repeats.