The genome sequence of a SNP type 3K strain of Mycobacterium leprae isolated from a seventh-century Hungarian case of lepromatous leprosy

Abstract

We report on a Mycobacterium leprae genome isolated from the remains of an individual with lepromatous leprosy that were excavated from a seventh-century Hungarian cemetery. We determined that the genome was from a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) type 3K0 M. leprae strain, a lineage that diverged early from other M. leprae lineages. This is one of the earliest 3K0 M. leprae genomes to be sequenced to date. A number of novel SNPs as well as SNPs characteristic of the 3K0 lineage were confirmed by conventional polymerase chain reaction and Sanger sequencing. Recovery of accompanying human DNA from the burial was poor, particularly when compared with that of the pathogen. Modern 3K0 M. leprae strains have only been isolated from East Asia and the Pacific, and so these findings require new scenarios to describe the origins and routes of dissemination of leprosy during antiquity that have resulted in the modern phylogeographical distribution of M. leprae.