Review Article Genomic Organization of Leishmania Species

Abstract: Leishmania is a protozoan parasite belonging to the family Trypanosomatidae, which is found among 88 different countries. The parasite lives as an amastigote in vertebrate macro-phages and as a promastigote in the digestive tract of sand fly. It can be cultured in the laboratory using appropriate culture media. Although the sexual cycle of Leishmania has not been observed during the promastigote and amastigote stages, it has been reported by some researchers. Leishmania has eukaryotic cell organization. Cell culture is convenient and cost effective, and because posttranslational modifications are common processes in the cultured cells, the cells are used as hosts for preparing eukaryotic recombinant proteins for research. Several transcripts of rDNA in the Leishmania genome are suitable regions for conducting gene transfer. Old Worl