Scientists Map Genes of Bacterium That Causes Leprosy

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II

An Anglo-French team has sequenced the genetic map of the leprosy bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, a feat that could point to new ways to diagnose and treat the disfiguring disease that strikes 700,000 people every year. They report in today's Nature that the leprosy genome is very similar to, but much smaller than, the genetic map of the bacterium of tuberculosis, another highly infectious disease. They share 93% of the same genes.

But the leprosy bacterium seems to have lost nearly half of its nonessential genes, more than any other organism studied so far. Because there are so few genes, it will make it easier for scientists to identify the ones that are important.