Abstract
BackgroundThe taxonomic status of Leishmania (L.) killicki, a parasite that causes chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is not well defined yet. Indeed, some researchers suggested that this taxon could be included in the L. tropica complex, whereas others considered it as a distinct phylogenetic complex. To try to solve this taxonomic issue we carried out a detailed study on the evolutionary history of L. killicki relative to L. tropica.MethodsThirty-five L. killicki and 25 L. tropica strains isolated from humans and originating from several countries were characterized using the MultiLocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE) and the MultiLocus Sequence Typing (MLST) approaches.ResultsThe results of the genetic and phylogenetic analyses strongly support the hypothesis that L. killicki belongs to the L. tropica complex. Our data suggest that L. killicki emerged from a single founder event and that it evolved independently from L. tropica. However, they do not validate the hypothesis that L. killicki is a distinct complex. Therefore, we suggest naming this taxon L. killicki (synonymous L. tropica) until further epidemiological and phylogenetic studies justify the L. killicki denomination.ConclusionsThis study provides taxonomic and phylogenetic information on L. killicki and improves our knowledge on the evolutionary history of this taxon.
Highlights
The taxonomic status of Leishmania (L.) killicki, a parasite that causes chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is not well defined yet
Isoenzymatic identification of Leishmania strains Among the 62 strains under study, 53 had been previously characterized by MultiLocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE) at the Centre National de
Previous studies using a small number of strains and different molecular tools and analytic methods [9,12,31,38,40] included L. killicki in the L. tropica complex, except the study by Rioux and Lanotte [39] in which it was considered as a separate phylogenetic complex
Summary
The taxonomic status of Leishmania (L.) killicki, a parasite that causes chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is not well defined yet. Leishmaniases are neglected tropical diseases caused by Leishmania parasites and transmitted to mammals through bites by infected Phlebotomine sandflies of the genus Phlebotomus [1]. In humans, these diseases can have cutaneous (CL), muco-cutaneous (MCL) or visceral (VL) clinical manifestations. The biochemical classification based on the study of the parasite isoenzymatic patterns started to be developed. This approach has evolved from the classical Adansonian to the numerical cladistic classification method that uses isoenzymes as evolutionary markers [4,5,6,7,8]. By using numerical phenetic and phylogenetic approaches, Rioux et al [9] identified four main
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