Ecological divergence and hybridization of Neotropical <i>Leishmania</i> parasites.

ABSTRACT: The tropical Andes are an important natural laboratory to understand speciation in many taxa. Here we examined the evolutionary history of parasites of the Leishmania braziliensis species complex based on whole-genome sequencing of 67 isolates from 47 localities in Peru. We first show the origin of Andean Leishmania as a clade of near-clonal lineages that diverged from admixed Amazonian ancestors, accompanied by a significant reduction in genome diversity and large structural variations implicated in host-parasite interactions. Within the Andean species, patterns of population structure were strongly associated with biogeographical origin. Molecular clock and ecological niche modeling suggested that the history of diversification of the Andean lineages is limited to the Late

SUBMITTER: Van den Broeck F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7547230 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature