Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Post-Genomic Era

Is Predominant Clonal Evolution a Common Evolutionary Adaptation to Parasitism in Pathogenic Parasitic Protozoa, Fungi, Bacteria, and Viruses?

“…The results are especially convincing for Leishmania (Boité et al, 2012;Downing et al, 2011;Inbar et al, 2013;Lachaud et al, 2014;Mannaert et al, 2012;Rogers et al, 2011Rogers et al, , 2014Sterkers et al, 2011Sterkers et al, , 2012Sterkers et al, , 2014, but are also available for T. cruzi (Buscaglia et al, 2015;Minning et al, 2011;Reis-Cunha et al, 2015;Souza et al, 2011). Aneuploidy is also frequent in C. albicans and C. neoformans (Ene and Bennet, 2014;McManus and Coleman, 2014;Ni et al, 2013).…”

“…a Anderson et al (2000) b,c,e Badoc et al (2002) a,d Baker et al (2010) b Holmes (2009Holmes ( b , 2013 a,b Buscaglia et al (2015) a Avise (2015) c Andersson (2012) a,b…”

“…Establishing that near-clades are the results of reproductive barriers is the core of the PCE model, and one of its most important outcomes. 'A highly structured (e.g., clonal) population indicates that the main mode of reproduction for such a species lacks genetic exchange (is primarily asexual) or sex occurs only rarely' (Buscaglia et al, 2015). Considering that such a pattern was 'self-evident' (Ramírez and Llevellyn, 2015) is easy when arriving long after the battle and amounts to saying that the results of any phylogenetic analysis are self-evident.…”

“…The existence of such a common evolutionary trait has nothing unlikely and probably is a mark of the adaptation to parasitism that is shared by all these pathogens. Another important evolutionary trait, namely, reduction of genome size, is common to many organisms having a parasitic lifestyle (Buscaglia et al, 2015). Of course, the level of evidence is not the same among these species.…”

“…Gene conversion and mitotic recombination are other means to generate additional genetic variability within clones (Buscaglia et al, 2015;Calo et al, 2013;Flot et al, 2013;Omilian et al, 2006). Ackermann (2015) has proposed that phenotypic heterogeneity in genetically identical microorganisms was maintained through (1) stochastic gene expression, (2) periodic oscillations in cellular functions, (3) differential cellular ageing, (4) cellular interactions by metabolites or physical contacts, and (5) epigenetics.…”