High-resolution melting curve analysis of heat shock protein 65 for identification of mycobacterial isolates

Infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) often escape detection on traditional diagnostics. We evaluated the ability of heat shock protein 65 ( hsp 65) polymerase chain reaction and high-resolution melting curve (HRMC) analysis to identify and differentiate Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) from NTM in 150 clinical mycobacterial isolates from extra-pulmonary sites. A hundred MTC and 50 NTM isolates were identified. We were able to simultaneously differentiate between seven mycobacterial species using HRMC analysis; a concordance of 100% between hsp 65 HRMC analysis, polymerase chain reaction + restriction analysis and hsp 65 sequencing was observed.