Detection of Heteroresistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Pyrosequencing

The ability of pyrosequencing to detect a resistant minority population of a heteroresistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain was investigated by performing a titration study. A mutant signal was noted only when the proportion of mutant DNA in the DNA target was 35 to 50%, showing that the sensitivity is significantly lower than that of phenotypic drug susceptibility test methods.