Friday, April 10, 2009
Leishmania Exploit Sex
"Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania (Kinetoplastida:Trypanosomatidae) cause widespread and devastating human diseases. Visceral leishmaniasis is responsible for overwhelming fatal epidemics, and cutaneous leishmaniasis can lead to destructive and life-threatening mucocutaneous lesions. Since the discovery of these disease agents more than a century ago, there has been debate as to whether they reproduce entirely clonally or undergo genetic exchange [...] That debate is now over. Akopyants et al. provide evidence for genetic exchange in Leishmania. This represents the latest in a series of discoveries of sexual cycles operating in eukaryotic pathogens previously thought to be asexual ". Full article @ Science:
