Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.4
4.5
Journals
Microorganisms
Special Issues
Inter- and Intraspecific Variation between Leishmanial Parasites
share announcement

Inter- and Intraspecific Variation between Leishmanial Parasites

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Parasitology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 4058

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gabriele Schönian

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Medicine Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Interests: taxonomy, phylogeny and population genetics of Leishmania genus; detection of inter- and intraspecific variation between leishmanial parasites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

Microorganisms is announcing a Special Issue on “Inter- and Intraspecific Genetic Variation between Leishmanial Parasites” for 2021, which will be open for studies on different aspects of genetic variation within the Leishmania genus. The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together a set of reviews and research articles dealing with genomic or smaller-scale genetic approaches for studying inter- and intra-specific variation in the Leishmania genus.

In the past decades, multilocus genetic approaches analysing variation in different coding regions (MLSA) or microsatellite loci (MLMT) have revealed that inter- and, even more, intraspecific variation between and within different Leishmania species is higher than previously thought. More recently, genomic approaches became available after reference genomes were published for many Leishmania species and strains on the kinetoplastid genome database, TriTrypDB. Genome-wide approaches have, so far, provided new insights in Leishmania taxonomy, for exploring the origin of the genus and for studying the microevolution of leishmanial populations.

We invite publications from scientists using genomic or genetic smaller-scale genetic approaches, also including bioinformatics, to detect variations in coding or non-coding regions of leishmanial genomes. We are also interested in studies investigating the relations between genotypic and phenotypic diversity. Finally, we encourage the publication of population genetic, phylogenomic, and phylogenetic studies for Leishmania.

Dr. Gabriele Schönian
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Leishmania genus
  • Whole-genome sequencing
  • Genomic diversity
  • Bioinformatic tools
  • Genetic variation
  • Inter- and intraspecific variations
  • Population genetic studies
  • Phylogeny and phylogenomics
  • Taxonomy
  • Molecular epidemiology.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 2151 KiB  
Article
Intra-Specific Diversity of Leishmania major Isolates: A Key Determinant of Tunisian Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Clinical Polymorphism
by Hanene Attia, Manel Rabia Sghaier, Aymen Bali, Fatma Zahra Guerfali, Sadok Chlif, Chiraz Atri, Nabil Belhaj-Hamida, Amor Zaatour, Adel Gharbi, Afif Ben-Salah, Koussay Dellagi and Dhafer Laouini
Microorganisms 2022, 10(3), 505; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/microorganisms10030505 - 25 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1687
Abstract
The clinical expression of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) caused by Leishmania (L.) major parasites has a broad spectrum ranging from asymptomatic infection to self-limited cutaneous sores or severe disease. In concert with the host immune responses, the vector variability and the [...] Read more.
The clinical expression of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) caused by Leishmania (L.) major parasites has a broad spectrum ranging from asymptomatic infection to self-limited cutaneous sores or severe disease. In concert with the host immune responses, the vector variability and the number of bites, genetic variation between L. major isolates might impact on the clinical output of the disease. We investigated herein the intra-specific variability of L. major field isolates independently of host or vector factors and then tried to correlate parasite variability to ZCL severity in corresponding patients. Several assays were applied, i.e., in vivo pathogenicity of promastigotes in a BALB/c mice model, resistance/sensibility to complement lysis, in vitro growth kinetics, and expression of different lectins on the promastigote surface. Combining all these parameters allowed us to conclude that the resistance to complement lysis and PNA/Jacalin lectins binding to parasite surfaces are important markers of parasite virulence. These factors correlate significantly with clinic polymorphism of ZCL and modestly with genetic micro-heterogeneity, a characteristic we previously revealed with a MLMT profile. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inter- and Intraspecific Variation between Leishmanial Parasites)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 1273 KiB  
Article
Leishmania and the Model of Predominant Clonal Evolution
by Michel Tibayrenc and Francisco J. Ayala
Microorganisms 2021, 9(11), 2409; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/microorganisms9112409 - 22 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1790
Abstract
As it is the case for other pathogenic microorganisms, the respective impact of clonality and genetic exchange on Leishmania natural populations has been the object of lively debates since the early 1980s. The predominant clonal evolution (PCE) model states that genetic exchange in [...] Read more.
As it is the case for other pathogenic microorganisms, the respective impact of clonality and genetic exchange on Leishmania natural populations has been the object of lively debates since the early 1980s. The predominant clonal evolution (PCE) model states that genetic exchange in these parasites’ natural populations may have a high relevance on an evolutionary scale, but is not sufficient to erase a persistent phylogenetic signal and the existence of bifurcating trees. Recent data based on high-resolution markers and genomic polymorphisms fully confirm the PCE model down to a microevolutionary level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inter- and Intraspecific Variation between Leishmanial Parasites)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop