Complete Genome Sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of most prevalent pathogens in the world. Drug-resistant strains of this pathogen caused by the excessive use of antibiotics have long posed serious threats to public health worldwide. A broader picture of drug resistance mechanisms at the genomic level can be obtained only with large-scale comparative genomic methodology. Two closely related Beijing family isolates, one resistant to four first-line drugs (CCDC5180) and one sensitive to them (CCDC5079), were completely sequenced. These sequences will serve as valuable references for further drug resistance site identification studies and could be of great importance for developing drugs targeting these sites. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the best-studied patho-gens, because of its prevalence and virulence (2, 6). In recent years, due to excessive antibiotic use, multidrug-resistant tuber-culosis has become a serious public health threat in many coun-tries and a major obstacle to disease control. Identifying the differences between drug-resistant and-sensitive strains will be of great help in drug resistance site identification. Toward this end, two closely related strains, CCDC5079 and CCDC5180, wer