01619nas a2200289   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653002100055653003000076653004100106653002100147653002200168653002200190653001100212653001200223653002500235653003600260653001600296100001200312700001100324245006800335856007600403300001000479490000600489520082000495022001401315       2011                            d  c2011 Jan10aBase Composition10aDNA Transposable Elements10aDrug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial10aGenes, Bacterial10aGenetic Variation10aGenome, Bacterial10aHumans10aleprosy10aMycobacterium leprae10aPolymorphism, Single Nucleotide10aPseudogenes1 aSingh P1 aCole S00aMycobacterium leprae: genes, pseudogenes and genetic diversity.  uhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3076554/pdf/nihms269056.pdf  a57-710 v63 a<p>Leprosy, which has afflicted human populations for millenia, results from infection with Mycobacterium leprae, an unculturable pathogen with an exceptionally long generation time. Considerable insight into the biology and drug resistance of the leprosy bacillus has been obtained from genomics. M. leprae has undergone reductive evolution and pseudogenes now occupy half of its genome. Comparative genomics of four different strains revealed remarkable conservation of the genome (99.995% identity) yet uncovered 215 polymorphic sites, mainly single nucleotide polymorphisms, and a handful of new pseudogenes. Mapping these polymorphisms in a large panel of strains defined 16 single nucleotide polymorphism-subtypes that showed strong geographical associations and helped retrace the evolution of M. leprae.</p>  a1746-0921