Demonstration of Genetic Exchange During Cyclical Development of Leishmania in the Sand Fly Vector
Abstract
Genetic exchange has not been shown to be a mechanism underlying the extensive diversity of Leishmania parasites. We report here evidence that the invertebrate stages of Leishmania are capable of having a sexual cycle consistent with a meiotic process like that described for African trypanosomes. Hybrid progeny were generated that bore full genomic complements from both parents, but kinetoplast DNA maxicircles from one parent. Mating occurred only in the sand fly vector, and hybrids were transmitted to the mammalian host by sand fly bite. Genetic exchange likely contributes to phenotypic diversity in natural populations, and analysis of hybrid progeny will be useful for positional cloning of the genes controlling traits such as virulence, tissue tropism, and drug resistance.
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This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and in part by NIAID grant support (S.M.B., D.E.D., and N.S.A. A1029646 and A1020941). We thank K. Owens for inventorying and shipping parasite strains; K. Beacht for mouse infection studies; and M. Grigg, L. Miller, and A. Sher for critical review of the manuscript. Maxicircle sequences have been submitted to GenBank and had been assigned accession numbers FJ349262 to FJ349263 (12S rRNA) and FJ349264 to FJ349265 (Divergent region).
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Science
Volume 324 | Issue 5924
10 April 2009
10 April 2009
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 8 December 2008
Accepted: 18 February 2009
Published in print: 10 April 2009
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