Query: NC_008390:987052 Burkholderia cepacia AMMD chromosome 1, complete sequence
Lineage: Burkholderia ambifaria; Burkholderia; Burkholderiaceae; Burkholderiales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: Isolated from the rhizosphere of healthy pea plants in Wisconsin, USA, in 1985. Pathogenic in cystic fibrosis patients. These bacteria present great versatility to adapt to diverse environments, and are capable of degrading pollutants in water and soil, and fixing atmospheric nitrogen. This species include strains isolated from cystic fibrosis patients as well as strains with potential use in biocontrol.
Subject: NC_011896:3252925 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.