The identification of mycobacteria is essential because tuberculosis (TB) and mycobacteriosis are clinically
indistinguishable and require different therapeutic regimens. The traditional phenotypic method is time consuming
and may last up to 60 days. Indeed, rapid, affordable, specific and easy-to-perform identification methods are
needed. We have previously described a polymerase chain reaction-based method called a mycobacteria mobility
shift assay (MMSA) that was designed for
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
complex (MTC) and nontuberculous mycobacteria
(NTM) species identification. The aim of this study was to assess the MMSA for the identification of MTC
and NTM clinical isolates and to compare its performance with that of the PRA-
hsp65 method. A total of 204 clinical
isolates (102 NTM and 102 MTC) were identified by the MMSA and PRA-
hsp65. For isolates for which these methods
gave discordant results, definitive species identification was obtained by sequencing fragments of the 16S rRNA
and
hsp65 genes. Both methods correctly identified all MTC isolates. Among the NTM isolates, the MMSA alone
assigned 94 (92.2%) to a complex or species, whereas the PRA-
hsp65 method assigned 100% to a species. A 91.5%
agreement was observed for the 94 NTM isolates identified by both methods. The MMSA provided correct identification
for 96.8% of the NTM isolates compared with 94.7% for PRA-
hsp65. The MMSA is a suitable auxiliary method
for routine use for the rapid identification of mycobacteria.
