10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 5 Issue 1 2014 (January - March) Drug susceptibility profile of 53 lessThan i greaterThan Mycobacterium tuberculosis lessThan /i greaterThan clinical isolates was studied by conventional solid and liquid culture methods. Forty three isolates were drug resistant to at least one drug and 10 were susceptible. The strain identification was performed by PCR amplification of lessThan i greaterThan mtp40 lessThan /i greaterThan gene and strain subtyping was performed by Double Repetitive Element-PCR (DRE-PCR), IS lessThan i greaterThan 6110 lessThan /i greaterThan outward primers-PCR and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD-PCR). Strains were best discriminated by DRE-PCR (15 patterns), followed by RAPD-PCR (11 patterns), and IS lessThan i greaterThan 6110 lessThan /i greaterThan -PCR (7 patterns). The PCR amplification of lessThan i greaterThan mtp40 lessThan /i greaterThan gene was evaluated for the rapid differentiation of lessThan i greaterThan M. tuberculosis lessThan /i greaterThan and lessThan i greaterThan M. lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan bovis lessThan /i greaterThan . The DRE-PCR method showed highest reliability than the other methods and provided a useful alternative tool for subtyping of lessThan i greaterThan M. lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan tuberculosis lessThan /i greaterThan clinical isolates and thus offers simple procedure to demonstrate that prevalence of TB in Puducherry region. M. KATHIRVEL,K. VALLAYYACHARI,R. THIRUMURUGAN,B. USHARANI,ANTONY V. SAMROT AND M. MUTHURAJ. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Genotyping, PCR typing, DRE-PCR, RAPD-PCR and IS6110-PCR 229-236