About the Authors

Markus Beutler

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft

m.beutler@imlred.de

Affiliation Institute of Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, Department IML Red GmbH, WHO-Supranational Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis, Munich-Gauting, Germany

Sara Plesnik

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Institute of Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, Department IML Red GmbH, WHO-Supranational Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis, Munich-Gauting, Germany

Marina Mihalic

Roles Investigation

Affiliation Institute of Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, Department IML Red GmbH, WHO-Supranational Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis, Munich-Gauting, Germany

Laura Olbrich

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, LMU University Hospital, Munich, Germany, German Centre of Research on Infectious Diseases (DZIF), Partner Site Munich, Germany

Norbert Heinrich

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, LMU University Hospital, Munich, Germany, German Centre of Research on Infectious Diseases (DZIF), Partner Site Munich, Germany

Samuel Schumacher

Roles Conceptualization

Affiliation Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Geneva, Switzerland

Michael Lindner

Roles Resources

Affiliation Asklepios Fachkliniken München-Gauting, Munich, Germany

Ina Koch

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Asklepios Fachkliniken München-Gauting, Munich, Germany

Wolfgang Grasse

Roles Methodology, Resources

Affiliation gerbion GmbH & Co. KG, Kornwestheim, Germany

Christoph Metzger-Boddien

Roles Resources

Affiliation gerbion GmbH & Co. KG, Kornwestheim, Germany

Sabine Hofmann-Thiel

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Institute of Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, Department IML Red GmbH, WHO-Supranational Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis, Munich-Gauting, Germany, SYNLAB Gauting, SYNLAB Human Genetics Munich, Munich-Gauting, Germany

Harald Hoffmann

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Institute of Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, Department IML Red GmbH, WHO-Supranational Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis, Munich-Gauting, Germany, SYNLAB Gauting, SYNLAB Human Genetics Munich, Munich-Gauting, Germany

Competing Interests

Xpert cartridges, FluoroType reagents and diarella MTB/NTM/MAC qPCR kits were provided free of charge by Cepheid, Hain Lifescience GmbH and gerbion GmbH & Co. KG, respectively. The BD-MAX machine was provided by Becton Dickinson free of charge. MB received a salary from BD for giving a talk at a conference (REMMDI, 11-April-2019). Gerbion GmbH & Co. KG and IML red GmbH are partners in further research projects (TB-Tube and TB-SeqDisK). A patent named “ARTIFICIAL SPUTUM, METHOD OF PRODUCING AN ARTIFICIAL SPUTUM” is submitted in the name of IML red GmbH to the European Patent Office and currently pending (application number EP19165015.9). The patent will not be published before the 25th of September 2020. Commercial affiliations and the pending patent do not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.