title: A primer for Leishmania population genetic studies.
abstract: Leishmaniases remain a major public health problem. Despite the development of elaborate experimental techniques and sophisticated statistical tools, how these parasites evolve, adapt themselves to new environmental compartments and hosts, and develop resistance to new drugs remains unclear. Leishmania parasites constitute a complex model from a biological, ecological, and epidemiological point of view but also with respect to their genetics and phylogenetics. With this in view, we seek to outline the criteria, caveats, and confounding factors to be considered for Leishmania population genetic studies. We examine how the taxonomic complexity, heterozygosity, intraspecific and interspecific recombination, aneuploidy, and ameiotic recombination of Leishmania intersect with population genetic studies of this parasite.
authors.affiliation: MIVEGEC (Laboratoire Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 5290 - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) 224 - Universités Montpellier 1 et 2, Montpellier, France; Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon. Electronic address: rougeron.virginie@gmail.com.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rougeron
authors.affiliation: IRD/Centre International de Recherche-Développement sur l'Élevage en zone Subhumide (CIRDES), UMR 177, INTERTRYP IRD-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), CIRDES 01, BP 454 Bobo-Dioulasso 01, Burkina Faso.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: De Meeûs
authors.affiliation: MIVEGEC (Laboratoire Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 5290 - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) 224 - Universités Montpellier 1 et 2, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: A-L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bañuls
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D005828:Genetics, Population; D007891:Leishmania / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction
keywords: Leishmania; aneuploidy.; mix mating; population genetic; sex