Query: NC_011896:363448 Mycobacterium leprae Br4923, complete genome
Lineage: Mycobacterium leprae; Mycobacterium; Mycobacteriaceae; Actinomycetales; Actinobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was isolated from a human skin biopsy in Brazil, and passaged in nude mice and armadillos. The bacterium is a close relative of M. tuberculosis. However, compared to the latter, the genome of M. leprae is smaller due to reductive genome evolution, with many important metabolic activities including siderophore production, part of the oxidative chain, most of the microaerophilic and anaerobic respiratory chains, and numerous catabolic systems and their regulatory circuits eliminated due to extensive recombination events between dispersed repetitive sequences. It is evident that this species has undergone massive genome reduction over time as a result of its parasitic nature, discarding more than half its genes and rendering it the most striking example of genome reduction in a microbial pathogen.
Subject: NC_004578:5623783 Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato str. DC3000, complete genome
Lineage: Pseudomonas syringae group genomosp. 3; Pseudomonas; Pseudomonadaceae; Pseudomonadales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: While pathogenic on Arabidopsis thaliana, it is mainly characterized as causing bacterial speck disease on tomato plants, which has a large economic impact. This organism is mainly endophytic and is a poor colonizes of plant surfaces but can multiply within the host. Bacteria belonging to the Pseudomonas group are common inhabitants of soil and water and can also be found on the surfaces of plants and animals. Pseudomonas bacteria are found in nature in a biofilm or in planktonic form. Pseudomonas bacteria are renowned for their metabolic versatility as they can grow under a variety of growth conditions and do not need any organic growth factors. This species includes many plant pathogens of important crops, which makes it a model organism in plant pathology. Its natural environment is on the surface of plant leaves and it can withstand various stressful conditions, like rain, wind, UV radiation and drought. It can colonize plants in a non-pathogenic state and can rapidly take advantage of changing environmental conditions to induce disease in susceptible plants by shifting gene expression patterns.