Honey, I shrunk the genome: genome reduction in the leprosy bacillus

The leprosy bacillus is famed for being the first microorganism definitively shown to be associated with human disease. It evades the host's immune response by invading and propagating inside the vacuoles of macrophages called phagosomes. From there, it infects the Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system, where it disrupts myelin production, thus leading to the characteristic features of leprosy, which include skin lesions and sensory loss.