Demangel Caroline, Stinear Timothy P, Cole Stewart T
Institut Pasteur, UP Pathogénomique Mycobactérienne Intégrée, Paris, France.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2009 Jan;7(1):50-60. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro2077.
Buruli ulcer is an emerging human disease caused by infection with a slow-growing pathogen, Mycobacterium ulcerans, that produces mycolactone, a cytotoxin with immunomodulatory properties. The disease is associated with wetlands in certain tropical countries, and evidence for a role of insects in transmission of this pathogen is growing. Comparative genomic analysis has revealed that M. ulcerans arose from Mycobacterium marinum, a ubiquitous fast-growing aquatic species, by horizontal transfer of a virulence plasmid that carries a cluster of genes for mycolactone production, followed by reductive evolution. Here, the ecology, microbiology, evolutionary genomics and immunopathology of Buruli ulcer are reviewed.
布鲁里溃疡是一种新出现的人类疾病，由感染生长缓慢的病原体溃疡分枝杆菌引起，该病原体产生具有免疫调节特性的细胞毒素——分枝杆菌内酯。这种疾病与某些热带国家的湿地有关，昆虫在该病原体传播中作用的证据越来越多。比较基因组分析表明，溃疡分枝杆菌起源于无处不在且生长迅速的水生菌种海分枝杆菌，通过水平转移携带一组分枝杆菌内酯生产基因的毒力质粒，随后经历了简化进化。本文对布鲁里溃疡的生态学、微生物学、进化基因组学和免疫病理学进行了综述。
