High genome plasticity and frequent genetic exchange in Leishmania tropica isolates from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The kinetoplastid protozoan Leishmania tropica mainly causes cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans in the Middle East, and relapse or treatment failure after treatment are common in this area. L. tropica's digenic life cycle includes distinct stages in the vector sandfly and the mammalian host. Sexual reproduction and genetic exchange appear to occur more frequently than in other Leishmania species. Understanding these processes is complicated by chromosome instability during cell division that yields aneuploidy, recombination and heterozygosity. This combination of rare recombination and aneuploid permits may reveal signs of hypothetical parasexual mating, where diploid cells fuse to form a transient tetraploid that undergoes chromosomal recombination and gradual chromosoma

SUBMITTER: Glans H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8754299 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature