The paraphyletic composition of Leishmania donovani zymodeme MON-37 revealed by multilocus microsatellite typing.
Multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) was employed to compare strains of Leishmania donovani belonging to the MON-37 zymodeme (MON-37 strains) from Cyprus and Israel to MON-37 strains from the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, China and East Africa as well as strains of other zymodemes. The MLMT data were processed with a distance-based method for construction of phylogenetic trees, factorial correspondence analysis and a Bayesian model-based clustering algorithm. All three approaches assigned the MON-37 strains to different distantly related genetically defined subgroups, corresponding to their geographical origin. Specifically, the Kenyan, Sri Lankan and Indian MON-37 strains were genetically closer to strains of other zymodemes from the same regions than to MON-37 strains from other areas. MON-37 strains from Cyprus and Israel were clearly different not only among themselves, but also compared to all the other MON-37 strains studied and could, therefore, be autochthonous. This study showed that the zymodeme MON-37 is paraphyletic and does not reflect the genetic relationship between strains of different geographical origin.
Institut für Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. mzalam12@yahoo.com
Mohammad Zahangir
MZ
Alam
Christos
C
Haralambous
Katrin
K
Kuhls
Evi
E
Gouzelou
Dionyssios
D
Sgouras
Ketty
K
Soteriadou
Lionel
L
Schnur
Francine
F
Pratlong
Gabriele
G
Schönian
D000351:Africa, Eastern; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003535:Cyprus; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007557:Israel; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000469:parasitology*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008877:Middle East; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny
D016054:DNA, Protozoan