“Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (but Were Afraid to Ask)” in Leishmania after Two Decades of Laboratory and Field Analyses

نویسندگان

  • Virginie Rougeron
  • Thierry De Meeûs
  • Sandrine Kako Ouraga
  • Mallorie Hide
  • Anne-Laure Bañuls
چکیده

Leishmaniases remain a major public health problem today (350 million people at risk, 12 million infected, and 2 million new infections per year). Despite the considerable progress in cellular and molecular biology and in evolutionary genetics since 1990, the debate on the population structure and reproductive mode of Leishmania is far from being settled and therefore deserves further investigation. Two major hypotheses coexist: clonality versus sexuality. However, because of the lack of clear evidence (experimental or biological confirmation) of sexuality in Leishmania parasites, until today it has been suggested and even accepted that Leishmania species were mainly clonal with infrequent genetic recombination (see [1] for review). Two recent publications, one on Leishmania major (an in vitro experimental study) and one on Leishmania braziliensis (a population genetics analysis), once again have challenged the hypothesis of clonal reproduction. Indeed, the first study experimentally evidenced genetic recombination and proposed that Leishmania parasites are capable of having a sexual cycle consistent with meiotic processes inside the insect vector. The second investigation, based on population genetics studies, showed strong homozygosities, an observation that is incompatible with a predominantly clonal mode of reproduction at an ecological time scale (approximately 20-500 generations). These studies highlight the need to advance the knowledge of Leishmania biology. In this paper, we first review the reasons stimulating the continued debate and then detail the next essential steps to be taken to clarify the Leishmania reproduction model. Finally, we widen the discussion to other Trypanosomatidae and show that the progress in Leishmania biology can improve our knowledge of the evolutionary genetics of American and African trypanosomes.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

A Primer in Synchrotron Radiation: Everything You Wanted to Know about SEX (Synchrotron Emission of X-rays) but Were Afraid to Ask.

The basic properties of synchrotron radiation are derived with simple approaches, emphasizing phenomena rather than mathematical details.

متن کامل

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Susy, but Were Afraid to Ask

New experimental tests of nuclear supersymmetry are suggested. They involve the measurement of oneand two-nucleon transfer reactions between nuclei that belong to the same supermultiplet. These reactions provide a direct test of the ‘fermionic’ sector, i.e. of the operators that change a boson into a fermion or vice versa. We present some theoretical predictions for the supersymmetric quartet o...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره 6  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2010