title: A cloned kinetoplast DNA mini-circle fragment from a Leishmania spp. specific for post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis strains.
abstract: DNA-DNA hybridization techniques have been found to be very useful in the classification and identification of Leishmania parasites. We report here the cloning of a mini-circle from Leishmania strain UR6 in a plasmid and subcloning of the mini-circle fragments in M13 mp9. Clone MLURk32, containing a 560 bp fragment of mini-circle, has been found to have unique specificity. Application of this specific probe in identifying different Leishmania isolates reveals that the probe reacted only with strains of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis but not with strains or isolates of visceral leishmaniasis.
authors.affiliation: Leishmania Group, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Calcutta.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Das Gupta
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Majumder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015342:DNA Probes; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000235:genetics*; D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast; D006801:Humans; D007891:Leishmania / Q000235:genetics*; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000469:parasitology*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012867:Skin / Q000469:parasitology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes; D004270:DNA, Circular; D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast