Clinical Biotechnology and Microbiology Review Article Santosh Chokkakula 1 *, Mona E. Elyass 3,4 , Krishna Bharathi PV 2 , Idress Hamad Attitalla 3# and Ahmed A. Mahdi 3,5 1 School of Life and Health Sciences, Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry-535105, A.P, India 2 Selection grade lecture, Department of Zoology, S.K.V.T College, Rajahmundry, A.P-533103, India 3 Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Faculty of Science, Microbiology Department, Box 919, Al-Bayda, Libya 4 National Council for Research, Khartoum, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Sudan 5 University of Khartoum, Sudan Received: July 26, 2016; Published: December 17, 2016 *Corresponding Author: Santosh Chokkakula, School of Life and Health Sciences, Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry- 535105, India. #Corresponding Author: Idress Hamad Attitalla, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Faculty of Science, Department of Microbiology, Box, 919, Al-Bayda, Libya. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in Mycobacterium leprae and their role in strain typing of leprosy bacilli Abstract Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It is a disease of public health concern mainly because of its potential to cause disability in a small proportion of those affected and is a cause for social stigma and discrimination. Strain differentiation by Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) could be useful in tracing origins and routes of infection, general leprosy surveillance and prevalence. The current study focuses on strain typing of M. leprae through the use of SNPs to differentiate between strains located all over the world. Strain typing methods like surface antigen typing, multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE), phage typing, fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), variable umber tandem repeats (VNTR) and SNP are now available. Among all typing procedures, SNPis very accurate for molecular strain typing of M. leprae. The current review article clearly moni- tored the predominance of SNPs in different geographical areas. Based on the SNPs types, it explains how M. leprae strains are distrib- uted globally and analyses which SNPs are located in the different countries. Along with this, it explains how strains are transmitted and migrate from one area to other. Citation: Santosh Chokkakula., et al. “Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in Mycobacterium leprae and their role in strain typing of leprosy bacilli”. Clinical Biotechnology and Microbiology 1.1 (2016): 11-15. Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 2016 Page 11 to 15 Volume 1 Issue 1 December 2016 © All Copy rights are reserved by Santosh Chokkakula., et al. Leprosy is a debilitating and chronic disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae) and it is associated with the disability, stigma and discrimination to the affected individuals (Scollard., et al. 2004). Leprosy is a disease generally associated with poverty and related factors like overcrowding; however, it may affect persons of any socioeconomic group. Dapsone worked wonderfully at first, but later, M. leprae eventually began developing resistance to dapsone. There was no treatment for this disease until the introduction of the drug Dap- sone in 1940s. M. leprae, mostly found in warm tropical countries. Norway was the first person to identify the germ that causes leprosy ISSN: 2575-4750