Suzuki Koichi, Nakamura Kazuaki, Tanigawa Kazunari, Kawashima Akira, Wu Huhehasi, Akama Takeshi, Hayashi Moyuru, Sekimura Shin, Bang Pham Dang, Ishii Norihisa
Department of Bioregulation, Leprosy Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 4-2-1 Aoba-cho, Higashimurayama, Tokyo 189-0002, Japan.
Nihon Hansenbyo Gakkai Zasshi. 2009 Feb;78(1):61-5. doi: 10.5025/hansen.78.61.
Completion of Mycobacterium leprae genome sequence revealed that there are many pseudogenes and non-coding regions, but rather small numbers of protein-coding genes. This result indicates that M. leprae is a very unique organism, and this future is important to understand the biological nature and/or pathogenicity of M. leprae, which remain unclear. We attempted to find the biological nature of M. leprae by detecting the gene and pseudogene regions transcribed at high level. We detected the genomic regions including pseudogenes and demonstrated that six out of twelve high expression regions were pseudogenes. In addition, its transcription level was changed when M. leprae infects macrophage. RNA was detected from genes, pseudogenes and non-coding regions. The expression levels of these regions were different among patients and a part of them is disappeared just after treatment. These results suggested that RNA derived from pseudogene and non-coding region have some function concerning the infection and/or intracellular parasitism and that the analysis of pseudogene and non-coding region expression pattern of M. leprae is available as a criterion for therapeutic effect and disease type of leprosy, and a prognostic marker.
麻风分枝杆菌基因组序列的完成表明，存在许多假基因和非编码区域，但蛋白质编码基因数量较少。这一结果表明麻风分枝杆菌是一种非常独特的生物体，了解其生物学特性和/或致病性对未来研究很重要，但其仍不清楚。我们试图通过检测高水平转录的基因和假基因区域来发现麻风分枝杆菌的生物学特性。我们检测了包括假基因在内的基因组区域，并证明十二个高表达区域中有六个是假基因。此外，当麻风分枝杆菌感染巨噬细胞时，其转录水平会发生变化。从基因、假基因和非编码区域检测到了RNA。这些区域的表达水平在患者之间存在差异，其中一部分在治疗后就消失了。这些结果表明，来自假基因和非编码区域的RNA在感染和/或细胞内寄生方面具有某些功能，并且麻风分枝杆菌假基因和非编码区域表达模式的分析可作为麻风病治疗效果和疾病类型的标准以及预后标志物。
