Rifampicin drives the efficacy of the current first-line treatment regimen for tuberculosis (TB) [1]. Mutations in the rpoB gene cause rifampicin resistance (RR) of varying levels. Common mutations typically confer high-level, "high-confidence" resistance, providing a selective advantage to Mycobacterium tuberculosis during treatment at low fitness cost [2]. Growth-based phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing (pDST) is very reliable for high-confidence mutations. Mutations conferring low-level resistance at high fitness cost are easily lost during primary culture or will cause phenotypically false-susceptible results if not given enough time for growth, especially with the widely used automated MGIT 960 DST [3]. Due to disagreement on their significance, such rpoB mutations were called "disputed".

利福平可提高当前结核病 (TB) 一线治疗方案的疗效 [1]。rpoB基因的突变导致不同水平的利福平耐药性 (RR)。常见突变通常会赋予高水平、“高可信度”的抗性，从而在低适应性成本的治疗期间为结核分枝杆菌提供选择性优势 [2]。基于生长的表型药物敏感性测试 (pDST) 对于高置信度突变非常可靠。以高适应性成本赋予低水平抗性的突变很容易在原代培养过程中丢失，或者如果没有足够的生长时间会导致表型假易感结果，尤其是使用广泛使用的自动化 MGIT 960 DST [3]。由于对它们的意义存在分歧，这样的rpoB突变被称为“有争议的”。