title: Genetic polymorphism within the leishmania donovani complex: correlation with geographic origin.
abstract: Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to detect intraspecific diversity for the Leishmania donovani complex. Fifty-two decameric to 21-meric primers of arbitrary sequence were applied to 15 strains that belong to nine zymodemes. Strains belonging to the species L. major and L. tropica were used as outgroups. A total of 902 amplicons generated by RAPD were scored. Most primers produced species-specific profiles, only 0.6% amplicons were shared by all species, while 4.3% amplicons were common for all 15 strains of the L. donovani complex. Well-supported trees have been constructed, which show a rather strong correlation between the genetic polymorphism of studied strains and their geographic origin. In all obtained trees, L. infantum was paraphyletic. The RAPD profiles suggest that MON-30 belongs to L. donovani. Moreover, the genetic distance between the L. archibaldi strain and other leishmanias does not warrant existence of a separate species.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and Faculty of Biology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zemanová
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jirků
authors.forename: Isabel L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Mauricio
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Julius
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lukes
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D017931:DNA Primers; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique / Q000379:methods*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D016054:DNA, Protozoan