麻風(fēng)病是由麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌引起一種慢性,、有輕度傳染性的肉芽腫疾病，其特征為皮膚,、骨骼及內(nèi)臟的潰瘍,，會導(dǎo)致感覺喪失、癱瘓,、壞疽及肢體變形,，常發(fā)生于熱帶和亞熱帶。如今,，研究人員測出第二種完整的麻風(fēng)分支桿菌的基因組序列,，新成果以及對其他兩種麻風(fēng)病菌基因組的重新測序結(jié)果，發(fā)表在日前在線出版的《自然—遺傳學(xué)》期刊上,。
麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌是一種細菌性致病菌,。盡管目前在發(fā)達國家,，麻風(fēng)病已經(jīng)不再是一種威脅健康的嚴重疾病，但在欠發(fā)達地區(qū)如非洲或南亞等地的國家,，仍然還保留著這種疾病的高風(fēng)險區(qū)?，F(xiàn)在，世界上每年還有25萬例麻風(fēng)病,。
在此之前，研究人員已經(jīng)測出一種來自印度的麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌的基因組序列,，現(xiàn)在,，StewartCole和同事測出了一種來自巴西的麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌，他們同時也測出了來自泰國和美國的兩種病株的基因組序列,。盡管四種麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌分別來自地理位置相距遙遠的地方,，但對這種四個基因組序列的對比分析顯示，它們之間的相同程度高達99.995%,。麻風(fēng)分枝桿菌缺少多樣性的事實表示,，藥物對絕大多數(shù)的這類病菌將是有效的。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Nature Genetics 41, 1282 - 1289 (2009) 1 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/ng.477
Comparative genomic and phylogeographic analysis of Mycobacterium leprae
Marc Monot1,19, Nadine Honoré1,19, Thierry Garnier1, Nora Zidane1, Diana Sherafi1, Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi2, Masanori Matsuoka3, G Michael Taylor4, Helen D Donoghue4, Abi Bouwman5, Simon Mays6, Claire Watson7, Diana Lockwood7, Ali Khamispour8, Yahya Dowlati8, Shen Jianping9, Thomas H Rea10, Lucio Vera-Cabrera11, Mariane M Stefani12, Sayera Banu13, Murdo Macdonald14, Bishwa Raj Sapkota14, John S Spencer15, Jér?me Thomas16, Keith Harshman16, Pushpendra Singh17, Philippe Busso17, Alexandre Gattiker18, Jacques Rougemont18, Patrick J Brennan15 & Stewart T Cole17
Reductive evolution and massive pseudogene formation have shaped the 3.31-Mb genome of Mycobacterium leprae, an unculturable obligate pathogen that causes leprosy in humans. The complete genome sequence of M. leprae strain Br4923 from Brazil was obtained by conventional methods (6 coverage), and Illumina resequencing technology was used to obtain the sequences of strains Thai53 (38coverage) and NHDP63 (46 coverage) from Thailand and the United States, respectively. Whole-genome comparisons with the previously sequenced TN strain from India revealed that the four strains share 99.995% sequence identity and differ only in 215 polymorphic sites, mainly SNPs, and by 5 pseudogenes. Sixteen interrelated SNP subtypes were defined by genotyping both extant and extinct strains of M. leprae from around the world. The 16 SNP subtypes showed a strong geographical association that reflects the migration patterns of early humans and trade routes, with the Silk Road linking Europe to China having contributed to the spread of leprosy.
1 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
2 Instituto de Biomedicina, Caracas, Venezuela.
3 Leprosy Research Centre, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
4 Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Windeyer Institute, University College London, London, UK.
5 Faculty of Life Sciences, Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
6 Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage Centre for Archaeology, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth, UK.
7 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
8 Center for Research and Training in Skin Diseases and Leprosy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
9 National Center for Leprosy Control, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, China.
10 Department of Dermatology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
11 Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universitario 'José E. González', Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.
12 Tropical Pathology and Public Health Institute at Federal University of Goias, Setor Universitario, Goiania, Goias, Brazil.
13 International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
14 Leprosy Mission Nepal, Anandaban Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal.
15 Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
16 DNA Array Facility, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
17 Global Health Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
18 Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core Facility, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
19 These authors contributed equally to this work.
