Query: NC_014774:1120383 Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum CLso-ZC1 chromosome, complete
Lineage: Liberibacter solanacearum; Liberibacter; Rhizobiaceae; Rhizobiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This unculturable bacterium causes Zebra Chip disease of potato. The bacterium was identified in 2008 and named as "Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum" The disease causes million dollar loss in U.S. potato industry. Liberibacters are phloem-limited bacteria that are spread from infected to healthy plants. The species epithet 'solanacearum' refers to the family of plant hosts found to contain these organisms.
Subject: NC_011896:2240990 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.