We present the first report of histology- and culture-proven Mycobacterium marinum infection diagnosed by next-generation sequencing (NGS). It took <2 days to make a microbiological diagnosis using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinION device, compared to 20 days for the mycobacterium to be isolated from the tissue biopsy. NGS is particularly useful for culture-negative and slow-growing microorganism infections, such as mycobacterial, fungal and partially treated pyogenic bacterial infections. Due to its low equipment cost, short turn-around-time and portable size, the Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinION device is a useful platform for NGS in routine clinical microbiology laboratories.
Keywords: MinION; Mycobacterium marinum; Oxford Nanopore; next-generation sequencing; non-tuberculosis mycobacteria.
Copyright © 2022 Xing, Lo, Ma, Ip, Chan, Zhou, Gong, Lau and Woo.