AUTHOR=Kato Hirotomo , Cáceres Abraham G. , Gomez Eduardo A. , Tabbabi Ahmed , Mizushima Daiki , Yamamoto Daisuke S. , Hashiguchi Yoshihisa 

TITLE=Prevalence of Genetically Complex Leishmania Strains With Hybrid and Mito-Nuclear Discordance

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2021.625001

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2021.625001

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=Approximately 20 Leishmania species are known to cause cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral disorders in humans. Identification of the causative species in infected individuals is important for appropriate treatment and prognosis because infecting species are known to be the major determinant of clinical manifestations and may affect treatments for leishmaniasis. Although Leishmania species have been conventionally identified by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, genetic analysis targeting kinetoplast and nuclear DNA (kDNA and nDNA, respectively) is now widely used for this purpose. Recently, we conducted countrywide epidemiological studies of leishmaniasis in Ecuador and Peru to reveal prevalent species using PCR-RFLP targeting nDNA and identified unknown hybrid parasites in these countries together with species reported previously. Furthermore, comparative analyses of kDNA and nDNA revealed the distribution of parasites with mismatches between these genes, known as mito-nuclear discordance, which is the first report in protozoa. The prevalence of an unexpectedly high rate (~10%) of genetically complex strains including hybrid and mito-nuclear discordance reported suggests that genetic exchange may occur more frequently than previously thought in natural Leishmania populations. Hybrid Leishmania strains resulting from genetic exchanges are suggested to exacerbate the clinical symptoms when compared with parental strains and may extend the transmission potency by vectors of parental parasite species. Therefore, it is important to clarify how such genetic exchange influences disease progression and transmissibility by sand flies in nature. In addition, our basic aim is to identify where and how the genetic exchange resulting in the formation of hybrid and mito-nuclear discordance occurs.