Query: NC_008611:2615204 Mycobacterium ulcerans Agy99, complete genome
Lineage: Mycobacterium ulcerans; Mycobacterium; Mycobacteriaceae; Actinomycetales; Actinobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This organism causes Buruli ulcer and is the third most common mycobacterial pathogen after Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. The disease has increased dramatically through central and West Africa since the late 1980s. Causative agent of Buruli and Bairnsdale ulcer. Infection by Mycobacterium ulcerans causes the formation of skin ulcers which, if left untreated, can lead to extensive scarring and/or amputation. Mycobacterium ulcerans produces a cytotoxin, mycolactone, which causes the destruction of skin tissue seen in this disease. This organism is resistant to antibiotics and treatment involves the surgical removal of infected tissues.
Subject: NC_011896:1716000 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.