Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Discovery Bioinformatics, NextCure Inc., Beltsville, MD, USA.
Cell Rep. 2020 Apr 14;31(2):107507. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.03.071.
Protozoan parasites in the genus Leishmania produce a broad spectrum of diseases in their human hosts. The strain and species-specific genes controlling these diverse clinical outcomes have remained poorly tractable using reverse genetics approaches. A cryptic sexual cycle involving a meiotic-like process has been described in Leishmania but is so far confined to parasites growing in the sand fly vector. Here, we describe the reproducible in vitro generation of hybrid clones using axenic culture forms of Leishmania tropica promastigotes. Analysis of SNPs marker inheritance and whole-genome sequencing data indicate that the progeny clones are full genomic hybrids. The demonstration that mating-competent forms arise in culture should facilitate experimental study of the mating biology of Leishmania and the generation of large numbers of recombinant parasites for positional cloning of important genes.
原生动物寄生虫利什曼原虫属在其人类宿主中产生广泛的疾病。使用反向遗传学方法，控制这些不同临床结果的菌株和种特异性基因仍然难以追踪。在利什曼原虫中已经描述了一种涉及减数分裂样过程的隐蔽有性周期，但迄今为止仅限于在沙蝇媒介中生长的寄生虫。在这里，我们描述了使用利什曼热带前鞭毛体的无菌培养形式可重复产生杂种克隆。对 SNP 标记遗传和全基因组测序数据的分析表明，后代克隆是全基因组杂种。证明在培养中出现交配能力的形式应该有助于对利什曼的交配生物学进行实验研究，并产生大量重组寄生虫，以用于重要基因的定位克隆。
