title: [Genotyping of Mycobacterium leprae in Guangdong province].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To understand the genotypes of Mycobacterium leprae collected from Guangdong province, China and to analyze the routes of leprosy transmission both inside and outside of Guangdong. The impact of emigrant leprosy patients to the endemic nature of the disease in Guangdong was also studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  Typing on strains with variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were performed on the local cases and emigrant cases based on skin biopsy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most isolates from local patients belong to SNP type 1 and SNP type 3 isolates were found just in a small part of local isolates. However, all the emigrants were carrying SNP type 3. Within the SNP type 1 strain from Guangdong, alleles at the 18-8, 12-5, ML-1, (TA) 10 and (GGT) 5 differed from SNP 3 strains collected from other areas in China. However, all the SNP type 1 and SNP type 3 local isolates identified from Guangdong were having close VNTR profiles and the main differences appeared in the alleles at ML-1, (TA) 10 and (GGT) 5.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The transmission of strain with SNP type 1 seemed to be associated to the "Silk Road on the Sea", calling for monitoring and confirming the transmission of patients with SNP type 3 in Guangdong were from the secondary transmission, by the emigrant patients. Further study on the historic spread and phylogenetic relationships between SNP type 1 and novel SNP type 3 in Guangdong is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Leprosy Prevention, Guangdong Provincial Center for Skin Disease & STI Control, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiao-hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Xiao-man
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Weng
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial