@article {12, title = {First report of a mycolactone-producing Mycobacterium infection in fish agriculture in Belgium.}, journal = {FEMS Microbiol Lett}, volume = {286}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Sep}, pages = {93-5}, abstract = {

In the past few years, a mycolactone-producing subgroup of the Mycobacterium marinum complex has been identified and analyzed. These IS2404-positive species cause pathology in frogs and fish. A recently isolated mycobacterial strain from a fish in Belgium was analyzed using a variety of molecular methods and the results were identical to those obtained from a mycolactone-producing M. marinum from Israel.

}, keywords = {Agriculture, Animals, Bacterial Proteins, Bacterial Toxins, Belgium, Fish Diseases, Fishes, Israel, Macrolides, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium marinum}, issn = {0378-1097}, doi = {10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01264.x}, author = {Stragier, Pieter and Hermans, Katleen and Stinear, Tim and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise} } @article {5, title = {Heterogeneity among Mycobacterium ulcerans isolates from Africa.}, journal = {Emerg Infect Dis}, volume = {12}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 May}, pages = {844-7}, abstract = {

Mycobacterium ulcerans causes Buruli ulcer, an ulcerative skin disease in tropical and subtropical areas. Despite restricted genetic diversity, mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat analysis on M. ulcerans revealed 3 genotypes from different African countries. It is the first time this typing method succeeded directly on patient samples.

}, keywords = {Africa, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Base Sequence, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Molecular Epidemiology, Molecular Sequence Data, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Phylogeny, Polymorphism, Genetic, Tandem Repeat Sequences}, issn = {1080-6040}, doi = {10.3201/eid1205.051191}, author = {Stragier, Pieter and Ablordey, Anthony and Bayonne, L Manou and Lugor, Yatta L and Sindani, Ireneaus S and Suykerbuyk, Patrick and Wabinga, Henry and Meyers, Wayne M and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise} } @article {6, title = {Evidence for an intramacrophage growth phase of Mycobacterium ulcerans.}, journal = {Infect Immun}, volume = {75}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Feb}, pages = {977-87}, abstract = {

Mycobacterium ulcerans is the etiologic agent of Buruli ulcer (BU), an emerging tropical skin disease. Virulent M. ulcerans secretes mycolactone, a cytotoxic exotoxin with a key pathogenic role. M. ulcerans in biopsy specimens has been described as an extracellular bacillus. In vitro assays have suggested a mycolactone-induced inhibition of M. ulcerans uptake by macrophages in which its proliferation has not been demonstrated. Therefore, and uniquely for a mycobacterium, M. ulcerans has been classified as an extracellular pathogen. In specimens from patients and in mouse footpad lesions, extracellular bacilli were concentrated in central necrotic acellular areas; however, we found bacilli within macrophages in surrounding inflammatory infiltrates. We demonstrated that mycolactone-producing M. ulcerans isolates are efficiently phagocytosed by murine macrophages, indicating that the extracellular location of M. ulcerans is not a result of inhibition of phagocytosis. Additionally, we found that M. ulcerans multiplies inside cultured mouse macrophages when low multiplicities of infection are used to prevent early mycolactone-associated cytotoxicity. Following the proliferation phase within macrophages, M. ulcerans induces the lysis of the infected host cells, becoming extracellular. Our data show that M. ulcerans, like M. tuberculosis, is an intracellular parasite with phases of intramacrophage and extracellular multiplication. The occurrence of an intramacrophage phase is in accordance with the development of cell-mediated and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses in BU patients.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bacterial Toxins, Cells, Cultured, Disease Models, Animal, Female, Foot, Histocytochemistry, Humans, Macrolides, Macrophages, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Microscopy, Electron, Transmission, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Phagocytosis, Skin Diseases, Bacterial, Skin Ulcer}, issn = {0019-9567}, doi = {10.1128/IAI.00889-06}, author = {Torrado, Eg{\'\i}dio and Fraga, Alexandra G and Castro, Ant{\'o}nio G and Stragier, Pieter and Meyers, Wayne M and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise and Silva, Manuel T and Pedrosa, Jorge} } @article {8, title = {Identification of a new variable number tandem repeat locus in Mycobacterium ulcerans for potential strain discrimination among African isolates.}, journal = {Clin Microbiol Infect}, volume = {13}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jul}, pages = {734-6}, abstract = {

Intra-species discrimination in the highly clonal pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans was studied in a diverse collection of isolates by PCR amplification of a short sequence repeat locus containing heterogeneous arrays of tri-nucleotide repeats with an ACC consensus pattern. Post-amplification analysis indicated excellent typeability and identified five M. ulcerans alleles, including a unique Angolan type differentiated for the first time among a genetically conserved cluster of African isolates. These results are consistent with previously investigated independent markers, and provide an additional locus for variable number tandem repeat-based typing of M. ulcerans.

}, keywords = {Africa, Bacterial Typing Techniques, DNA, Bacterial, Humans, Minisatellite Repeats, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Species Specificity}, issn = {1198-743X}, doi = {10.1111/j.1469-0691.2007.01716.x}, author = {Ablordey, A and Fonteyne, P-A and Stragier, P and Vandamme, P and Portaels, F} } @article {1, title = {Genetic diversity and population structure of Mycobacterium marinum: new insights into host and environmental specificities.}, journal = {J Clin Microbiol}, volume = {50}, year = {2012}, pages = {3627-34}, abstract = {

Mycobacterium marinum causes a systemic tuberculosis-like disease in fish and skin infections in humans that can spread to deeper structures, resulting in tenosynovitis, arthritis, and osteomyelitis. However, little information is available concerning (i) the intraspecific genetic diversity of M. marinum isolated from humans and animals; (ii) M. marinum genotype circulation in the different ecosystems, and (iii) the link between M. marinum genetic diversity and hosts (humans and fish). Here, we conducted a genetic study on 89 M. marinum isolates from humans (n = 68) and fish (n = 21) by using mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) typing. The results show that the M. marinum population is genetically structured not only according to the host but also according to the ecosystem as well as to tissue tropism in humans. This suggests the existence of different genetic pools in the function of the biological and ecological compartments. Moreover, the presence of only certain M. marinum genotypes in humans suggests a different zoonotic potential of the M. marinum genotypes. Considering that the infection is linked to aquarium activity, a significant genetic difference was also detected when the human tissue tropism of M. marinum was taken into consideration, with a higher genetic polymorphism in strains isolated from patients with cutaneous forms than from individuals with deeper-structure infection. It appears that only few genotypes can produce deeper infections in humans, suggesting that the immune system might play a filtering role.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Animals, Biota, Child, Child, Preschool, DNA, Bacterial, Female, Fish Diseases, Fishes, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Interspersed Repetitive Sequences, Male, Middle Aged, Molecular Typing, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium marinum, Young Adult}, issn = {1098-660X}, doi = {10.1128/JCM.01274-12}, author = {Broutin, Vincent and Ba{\~n}uls, Anne-Laure and Aubry, Alexandra and Keck, Nicolas and Choisy, Marc and Bernardet, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Michel, Christian and Raymond, Jean-Christophe and Libert, C{\'e}dric and Barnaud, Antoine and Stragier, Pieter and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise and Terru, Dominique and Belon, Claudine and Dereure, Olivier and Gutierrez, Cristina and Boschiroli, Maria-Laura and Van De Perre, Philippe and Cambau, Emmanuelle and Godreuil, Sylvain} }