The results of discriminatory power according to diverse combinations were as follows 25 clusters in 83 strains were yielded from the internationally standardized 15 VNTR loci (Hunter-Gaston discriminatory index [HGDI], 0.9958), 25 clusters in 65 strains by using IS6110 RFLP (HGDI, 0.9977), 14 clusters in 32 strains in 12 hyper-variable VNTR loci (HGDI, 0.9995), 6 clusters in 13 strains in 32 VNTR loci (HDGI, 0.9998), and 7 clusters in 14 strains of both the 12 hyper-variable VNTR and IS6110 RFLP (HDGI, 0.9999).
CONCLUSION:
The combination of 12 hyper-variable VNTR typing can be an effective tool for genotyping Korean M. tuberculosis isolates where the Beijingstrains are predominant.