@article{25950,
  keywords = {Pathological aspects, Mycobacteria leprae, Mexico, Lucios Phenomenon, leprosy, Comparative genomics},
  author = {Singh P and Benjak A and Schuenemann V and Herbig A and Avanzi C and Busso P and Nieselt K and Krause J and Vera-Cabrera L and Cole S},
  title = {Insight into the evolution and origin of leprosy bacilli from the genome sequence of Mycobacterium lepromatosis},
  abstract = {<p>Leprosy was thought to be exclusively caused by infection of humans by <em>Mycobacterium leprae</em>. In 2008, Han et al. proposed that <em>Mycobacterium lepromatosis,</em> a separate unculturable species, might be responsible for a rare yet severe form of the disease called diffuse lepromatous leprosy. Here, by using comparative genomics, we show that the two species are very closely related and derived from a common ancestor that underwent genome downsizing and gene decay. Since their separation 13.9 Mya, the two species have continued to lose genes, but from different regions of the genome, and <em>M. leprae</em> appears to be more recent. In a phylogeographic survey, by using differential PCR, we found that <em>M. lepromatosis</em> was scarce and restricted to patients from Mexico.</p>
},
  year = {2015},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  pages = {201421504},
  publisher = {National Acad Sciences},
  issn = {0027-8424},
  url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394283/pdf/pnas.201421504.pdf},
  doi = {10.1073/pnas.1421504112},
  language = {eng},
}