RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Armas, Federica A1 Camperio, Cristina A1 Coltella, Luana A1 Selvaggini, Serena A1 Boniotti, Maria Beatrice A1 Pacciarini, Maria Lodovica A1 Di Marco Lo Presti, Vincenzo A1 Marianelli, CinziaYR 2017 T1 Comparison of semi-automated commercial rep-PCR fingerprinting, spoligotyping, 12-locus MIRU-VNTR typing and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis of the embB gene as molecular typing tools for Mycobacterium bovis JF Journal of Medical Microbiology, VO 66 IS 8 SP 1151 OP 1157 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.000536 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1473-5644, AB Purpose. Highly discriminatory genotyping strategies are essential in molecular epidemiological studies of tuberculosis. In this study we evaluated, for the first time, the efficacy of the repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) DiversiLab Mycobacterium typing kit over spoligotyping, 12-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing and embB single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis for Mycobacterium bovis typing. Methodology. A total of 49 M. bovis animal isolates were used. DNA was extracted and genomic DNA was amplified using the DiversiLab Mycobacterium typing kit. The amplified fragments were separated and detected using a microfluidics chip with Agilent 2100. The resulting rep-PCR-based DNA fingerprints were uploaded to and analysed using web-based DiversiLab software through Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results. Rep-PCR DiversiLab grouped M. bovis isolates into ten different clusters. Most isolates sharing identical spoligotype, MIRU-VNTR profile or embB gene polymorphism were grouped into different rep-PCR clusters. Rep-PCR DiversiLab displayed greater discriminatory power than spoligotyping and embB SNP analysis but a lower resolution power than the 12-locus MIRU-VNTR analysis. MIRU-VNTR confirmed that it is superior to the other PCR-based methods tested here. Conclusion. In combination with spoligotyping and 12-locus MIRU-VNTR analysis, rep-PCR improved the discriminatory power for M. bovis typing., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000536