Identification and Characterization of Mycobacterial Species Using Whole-Genome Sequences

Abstract

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has shown immense value in enabling identification and characterization of bacterial taxa. This is particularly true for mycobacteria, where culture-based characterization becomes delayed by the inherently slow growth rate of these organisms. This chapter reviews the general techniques behind WGS and their optimization, existing techniques for species-level identification and the advantages of WGS for this purpose, and a variety of useful tools for the genomic characterization of mycobacterial strains.