A novel multilocus sequence typing scheme identifying genetic diversity amongst Leishmania donovani isolates from a genetically homogeneous population in the Indian subcontinent.

A novel multilocus sequence typing scheme identifying genetic diversity amongst Leishmania donovani isolates from a genetically homogeneous population in the Indian subcontinent. Int J Parasitol. 2019 May 17;: Authors: Banu SS, Meyer W, Ferreira-Paim K, Wang Q, Kuhls K, Cupolillo E, Schönian G, Lee R Abstract In the Indian subcontinent, infection with Leishmania donovani can cause fatal visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Genetic variation in L. donovani is believed to occur rapidly from environmental changes and through selective drug pressures, thereby allowing continued disease occurrence in this region. All previous molecular markers that are commonly in use Multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST)), were monomorphic in L. donovani originating from the Indian subcontinent (with only a few exceptions) and hence are not suitable for this region. An MLST scheme consisting of a new set of seven housekeeping genes was developed in this study, based on recent findings from whole genome sequencing (WGS) data. This new scheme was used to assess the genetic diversity amongst 22 autochthonous L. donovani isolates from Bangladesh. Nineteen additional isolates of the L. donovani complex (including sequences of L. donovani reference strain BPK282A1) from other countries were included for comparison. By using restriction fragment length polymorphism of the internal transcribed spacer 1 region (ITS1-RFLP) and ITS1...
Source: International Journal for Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Authors: Tags: Int J Parasitol Source Type: research