Spoligotyping analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area, Pakistan Sajid Ali,1 Muhammad Tahir Khan,2 Khan Anwar Sheed,3 Muhammad Mumtaz Khan,4 Fariha Hasan11Department of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; 2Department of Bioinformatics and Biosciences, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; 3Provincial TB Reference Laboratory, Provincial TB Control Program, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan; 4Department of Microbiology, University of Haripur, Haripur, PakistanBackground: Spoligotyping is a reproducible, reverse hybridization approach for genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). Molecular typing of MTBC is helpful for understanding and controlling tuberculosis epidemics.Methods: Spoligotyping was performed on 166 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) collected from 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Results were compared to SITVIT2, an online database developed by the Institut Pasteur de la Guadeloupe, France.Results: Spoligotyping results showed that 145 strains (88%) displayed known patterns while 21 (12%) were new. Lineage 3/Central Asian strain (L3/CAS) was the predominant family (73%, χ2