ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2018
Mycobacterium leprae genomes from naturally infected nonhuman primates.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Silence on the plate: revisiting the enigma ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- An update on leprosy immunopathogenesis: systematic review.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Reservoirs and transmission routes of leprosy; A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Ancient Mycobacterium leprae genomes reveal a potential origin and dispersal of the ancestral Branch 0.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Transmission Patterns and Factors Influencing High Incidence of Leprosy among Indigenous Penan in Sarawak, Malaysia.Journal of community health · 2026Article
- Integrated action for skin NTDs: Deconstructing transmission, addressing knowledge gaps, and championing one health strategies.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Two pathogens, one disease: Rethinking leprosy diversification through ancient and modern genomes.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Article
- British Red Squirrels (Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- 4,000-year-old Mycobacterium lepromatosis genomes from Chile reveal long establishment of Hansen's disease in the Americas.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Enriching the future of public health microbiology with hybridization bait capture.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Genetic diversity of Mycobacterium leprae: Need to move towards genome-wide approaches.The Indian journal of medical research · 2024Review
- Tuberculosis in Lemurs and a Fossa at National Zoo, Madagascar, 2022.Emerging infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Pathogenicity and virulence ofVirulence · 2022Review
- Construction and Analysis of the Complete Genome Sequence of Leprosy Agent Mycobacterium lepromatosis.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Human macrophage polarization in the response toCurrent research in microbial sciences · 2021Article
- Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Leprosy in wild chimpanzees.Nature · 2021Article
- Simultaneous Determination of Mycobacterium leprae Drug Resistance and Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism Genotype by Use of Nested Multiplex PCR with Amplicon Sequencing.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2021Article
- Bacterial Infections in Humans and Nonhuman Primates from Africa: Expanding the Knowledge.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Leprosy is caused by the bacterial pathogens Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Apart from humans, animals such as nine-banded armadillos in the Americas and red squirrels in the British Isles are naturally infected with M. leprae. Natural leprosy has also been reported in certain nonhuman primates, but it is not known whether these occurrences are due to incidental infections by human M. leprae strains or by M. leprae strains specific to nonhuman primates. In this study, complete M. leprae genomes from three naturally infected nonhuman primates (a chimpanzee from Sierra Leone, a sooty mangabey from West Africa, and a cynomolgus macaque from The Philippines) were sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the cynomolgus macaque M. leprae strain is most closely related to a human M. leprae strain from New Caledonia, whereas the chimpanzee and sooty mangabey M. leprae strains belong to a human M. leprae lineage commonly found in West Africa. Additionally, samples from ring-tailed lemurs from the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar, and chimpanzees from Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, were screened using quantitative PCR assays, to assess the prevalence of M. leprae in wild nonhuman primates. However, these samples did not show evidence of M. leprae infection. Overall, this study adds genomic data for nonhuman primate M. leprae strains to the existing M. leprae literature and finds that this pathogen can be transmitted from humans to nonhuman primates as well as between nonhuman primate species. While the prevalence of natural leprosy in nonhuman primates is likely low, nevertheless, future studies should continue to explore the prevalence of leprosy-causing pathogens in the wild.
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