Genomic confirmation of hybridisation and recent inbreeding in a vector-isolated Leishmania population.

ABSTRACT: Although asexual reproduction via clonal propagation has been proposed as the principal reproductive mechanism across parasitic protozoa of the Leishmania genus, sexual recombination has long been suspected, based on hybrid marker profiles detected in field isolates from different geographical locations. The recent experimental demonstration of a sexual cycle in Leishmania within sand flies has confirmed the occurrence of hybridisation, but knowledge of the parasite life cycle in the wild still remains limited. Here, we use whole genome sequencing to investigate the frequency of sexual reproduction in Leishmania, by sequencing the genomes of 11 Leishmania infantum isolates from sand flies and 1 patient isolate in a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Çukurova province of southeast Turk

SUBMITTER: Rogers MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3894156 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature