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Volume 29, Number 5—May 2023
Research

Leishmania donovani Transmission Cycle Associated with Human Infection, Phlebotomus alexandri Sand Flies, and Hare Blood Meals, Israel1

Liora StudentskyComments to Author , Laor Orshan, Fouad Akad, Irina Ben Avi, Debora Diaz, Shirly Elbaz, Orly Sagi, Gal Zagron, Lea Valinsky, Maya Davidovich-Cohen, and Gad Baneth
Author affiliations: Ministry of Health Central Laboratories for Public Health, Jerusalem, Israel (L. Studentsky, L. Orshan, I. Ben Avi, D. Diaz, S. Elbaz, M. Davidovich-Cohen); The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel (L. Studentsky, G. Baneth); Ministry of Health National Laboratory for Public Health, Tel Aviv, Israel (F. Akad); Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheba, Israel (O. Sagi); Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, Jerusalem (G. Zagron); Maccabi Healthcare Services, Tel Aviv (L. Valinsky)

Main Article

Figure 2

Phylogenetic analysis of Leishmania internal transcribed spacer 1 rRNA fragments in study of Leishmania donovani transmission cycle associated with human infection, Phlebotomus alexandri sand flies, and hare blood meals, Israel. Leishmania-specific internal transcribed spacer 1 rRNA fragments (201 bp) were amplified by PCR from P. alexandri sand flies, pooled female Phlebotomus spp. flies, and patient samples and then sequenced. Tree was constructed by using the maximum-likelihood method and Tamura 3-parameter model, estimated by using the Aikaike information criterion (33). Dendogram includes sequences from L. donovani and L. infantum isolated from sand flies and clinical samples in this study compared with Leishmania spp. reference controls and GenBank sequences from Israel and other countries. Tree shows substantial separate clustering of L. infantum (boostrap 94%) and L. donovani (bootstrap 89%) sequences. Empty circles are Leishmania international reference strains, black triangles are the 10 sequences from our study deposited in GenBank, and black circles are additional L. infantum–positive sand flies samples from Israel. Available GenBank sequences for L. major, L. tropica, L. infantum, and L. donovani from Israel and other countries are also included. GenBank accession numbers, Leishmania spp., isolate source, and country are indicated. Only bootstrap values >70% are shown. Not to scale.

Figure 2. Phylogenetic analysis of Leishmania internal transcribed spacer 1 rRNA fragments in study of Leishmania donovani transmission cycle associated with human infection, Phlebotomus alexandri sand flies, and hare blood meals, Israel. Leishmania-specific internal transcribed spacer 1 rRNA fragments (201 bp) were amplified by PCR from P. alexandri sand flies, pooled female Phlebotomus spp. flies, and patient samples and then sequenced. Tree was constructed by using the maximum-likelihood method and Tamura 3-parameter model, estimated by using the Aikaike information criterion (33). Dendogram includes sequences from L. donovani and L. infantum isolated from sand flies and clinical samples in this study compared with Leishmania spp. reference controls and GenBank sequences from Israel and other countries. Tree shows substantial separate clustering of L. infantum (boostrap 94%) and L. donovani (bootstrap 89%) sequences. Empty circles are Leishmania international reference strains, black triangles are the 10 sequences from our study deposited in GenBank, and black circles are additional L. infantum–positive sand flies samples from Israel. Available GenBank sequences for L. major, L. tropica, L. infantum, and L. donovani from Israel and other countries are also included. GenBank accession numbers, Leishmania spp., isolate source, and country are indicated. Only bootstrap values >70% are shown. Not to scale.

Main Article

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Main Article

1Data from this study were presented at the Israeli Society for Parasitology, Protozoology and Tropical Diseases Annual Meeting; March 21, 2022; Kfar Hamaccabiah, Ramat Gan, Israel.

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