The relationship between embB mutation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and ethambutol (EMB) resistance of the clinical isolates of tuberculous patients in China was investigated by reversedot blot hybridization (RDBH) in addition to evaluating the clinical value with application of PCR-RD-BH technique to detect EMB resistance. In the present study, the genotypes of the 258 bp fragments of embB genes from 196 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were analysed with RDBH and DNA sequencing. It was demonstrated that 60 out of 91 phenotypically EMB-resistant isolates (65.9%) showed 5 types of missense mutations at codon 306 of embB gene, resulting in the replacement of the Met residue of the wild type strain with Val, Ile or Leu residues. In these mutations, the GTP mutation (38/91,41.8% ) and the ATA mutation ( 16/91, 17.6% ) were the most encountered genotypes. The embB mutation at codon 306 could also be found in 69 isolates of phenotypically EMB-sensitive but resistant to other anti-tuberculous drugs, but no such gene mutation could be found in 36 strains of drug-sensitive isolates. Meanwhile, the concordance with the results of DNA sequencing for one wide-type probe and 5 probes for specific mutations was 100%. It was concluded that the EMB-resistance occurring in most M. tuberculosis is due to appearance of embB mutation at codon 306, and the PCR-RDBH assay was proved to be a rapid, simple and reliable method for the detection of gene mutations, which might be a good alteative for the drug-resistance screening.