Genetic variability within the species Leishmania infantum by RAPD. A lack of correlation with zymodeme structure

Molecular Fingerprinting of Leishmania infantum Strains following an Outbreak of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Central Israel

“…Many Leishmania species, such as L. major, L. tropica, and L. (Viannia) braziliensis, show extensive polymorphism using several techniques, including MLEE, single-strand conformation polymorphism, DNA sequencing of the rRNA gene intergenic transcribed spacer region (ITS), and permissively primed intergenic polymorphic PCR; however, these techniques have shown limited usefulness in analyzing L. infantum (13,33,34). Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR and microsatellite sequencing have been successfully used to examine genetic polymorphism in L. infantum (7,12,20,37), and in at least two cases, an association between genotype and geographic distribution was noted (7,37). While DNA fingerprinting using human multilocus minisatellite probes has been useful in genotyping many organisms (14,17,24,27), including L. (Viannia) braziliensis, this technique has not been widely utilized to look at Leishmania polymorphism.…”

An Assessment of the Genetic Diversity of Leishmania infantum Isolates from Infected Dogs in Brazil

“…2 Studies on the genetic diversity of L. infantum strains in the Old World have clarified epidemiological issues regarding visceral leishmaniasis, including the geographical distribution of different genotypes and the associations between specific genotypes and the severity of disease. [9][10][11][12][13] In addition, these studies have made it possible to formulate hypotheses about the evolution of the genus Leishmania. 10,11 Correlations between the genetic diversity of L. infantum isolates from the Old World and their diverse geographical origins have been previously described.…”

“…17 However, only few canine isolates have been analyzed in these previous studies. 11,12,17 To further investigate the degree of genetic diversity among L. infantum canine isolates in the New World, we compared the degree of genetic divergence among isolates from Jequié (Bahia) and Campo Grande (Mato Grosso do Sul), two geographically distinct regions in Brazil located 2,028 km apart from each other. If L. infantum was indeed recently introduced into the New World, we hypothesized that the parasite isolates from these two distant locations would show no significant degree of divergence.…”

Practical Approach for Typing Strains of Leishmania infantum by Microsatellite Analysis

“…The last two methods have drawbacks. RFLP analysis is a time-consuming technique and large amounts of purified DNA are needed (2), whereas RAPD analysis requires strict conditions to obtain reproducibility between different laboratories and generates complex patterns (13,23). In contrast, specific PCR-based methods are attractive because of their rapidity and because culturing parasites can be avoided (9).…”