Leprosy Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 189-0002, Japan.
Jpn J Infect Dis. 2010 Nov;63(6):387-92.
The whole-genome sequence analysis of Mycobacterium leprae, which was completed in 2001, revealed the characteristics of this microbe's genomic structure. Half of the M. leprae genome consists of a limited number of protein-coding genes and the rest comprises non-coding regions and pseudogenes. We performed membrane array and tiling array analyses to analyze the gene-expression profile of the M. leprae genome and found that pseudogenes and non-coding regions were expressed similarly to coding regions at the RNA level. The RNA expressions were confirmed by real-time PCR analysis. Expression of these RNAs in clinical samples showed varying patterns among patients, thus indicating that the analysis of RNA expression patterns, including non-coding regions and pseudogenes, may be useful for understanding the pathological state, prognosis, and assessment of therapeutic progress in leprosy.
2001 年完成的麻风分枝杆菌全基因组序列分析揭示了该微生物基因组结构的特征。麻风分枝杆菌基因组的一半由数量有限的编码蛋白的基因组成，其余部分由非编码区和假基因组成。我们进行了膜阵列和平铺阵列分析，以分析麻风分枝杆菌基因组的基因表达谱，发现假基因和非编码区在 RNA 水平上与编码区相似表达。实时 PCR 分析证实了这些 RNA 的表达。这些 RNA 在临床样本中的表达在患者之间呈现不同的模式，因此表明分析 RNA 表达模式，包括非编码区和假基因，可能有助于了解麻风病的病理状态、预后和治疗进展的评估。
