title: Molecular detection, identification and phylogenetic inference of Leishmania spp. in some desert lizards from Northwest China by using internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) sequences.
abstract: Leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania is still endemic in Northwest China. It has been thought that reptiles could be a reservoir for mammalian leishmaniasis. However, data are still scarce on natural infection of lizards with Leishmania spp. in China. The present study deals with detection, identification and phylogenetic inference of Leishmania parasites at species and intraspecies levels isolated from six desert lizard species from 10 geographical locations in Northwest China using amplification and sequencing of ITS-rDNA. In total, 83 haplotypes were found among 137 ITS1 sequences obtained from up to 64.6% of all captured lizards. Representative sequences of Leishmania available in GenBank were compiled for comparison with the obtained haplotypes. Tree-based species delimitation was achieved by using Bayesian phylogenitc analyses and maximum parsimony approach. Phylogenetic trees congruently supported that the haplotypes were found to belong to three Leishmania species including L. (sauroleishmania) sp., Leishmania tropica and Leishmania donovani complex. A network approach revealed paraphyletic populations of L. (sauroleishmania) sp. and L. tropica at intraspecies level regarding geographical origin and low host specificity. Chinese L. tropica from lizards showed significant heterogeneity as the obtained haplotypes were distributed in different clusters from other countries. Common ancestry was observed between some sequences of L. tropica from lizards and other sequence types from clinical samples from other countries. This may lend support to the potential reservoir role of lizards for human leishmaniasis. Our results appear to be the first molecular evidence for natural infection of lizards in Northwest China with reptilian Leishmania and mammalian Leishmania species. Desert lizards may be considered as putative reservoir hosts for Leishmania in China. Further studies on persistence of the Leishmania parasites in lizards and sandflies are recommended for the better understanding of their epidemiological involvement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Rong
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Long
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Tian-He
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: cdl1978119@sina.com.
authors.forename: Da-Li
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, West China School of Preclinical and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Animal Disease Prevention and Food Safety Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China. Electronic address: jpchen007@163.com.
authors.forename: Jian-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002681:China; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D003889:Desert Climate; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007895:Leishmania tropica / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007896:Leishmaniasis / Q000469:parasitology*; D008116:Lizards / Q000469:parasitology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal
keywords: Desert lizards; Host specificity; ITS1; Leishmania; Northwest China; Phylogeny; Prevalence