麻风病是由麻风分枝杆菌引起一种慢性、有轻度传染性的肉芽肿疾病，其特征为皮肤、骨骼及内脏的溃疡，会导致感觉丧失、瘫痪、坏疽及肢体变形，常发生于热带和亚热带。如今，研究人员测出第二种完整的麻风分支杆菌的基因组序列，新成果以及对其他两种麻风病菌基因组的重新测序结果，发表在日前在线出版的《自然—遗传学》期刊上。
麻风分枝杆菌是一种细菌性致病菌。尽管目前在发达国家，麻风病已经不再是一种威胁健康的严重疾病，但在欠发达地区如非洲或南亚等地的国家，仍然还保留着这种疾病的高风险区。现在，世界上每年还有25万例麻风病。
在此之前，研究人员已经测出一种来自印度的麻风分枝杆菌的基因组序列，现在，StewartCole和同事测出了一种来自巴西的麻风分枝杆菌，他们同时也测出了来自泰国和美国的两种病株的基因组序列。尽管四种麻风分枝杆菌分别来自地理位置相距遥远的地方，但对这种四个基因组序列的对比分析显示，它们之间的相同程度高达99.995%。麻风分枝杆菌缺少多样性的事实表示，药物对绝大多数的这类病菌将是有效的。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
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.
