Genes and chromosomes of Leishmania infantum

Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 92(6), November/December 1997, pp. 853-858 Genes and chromosomes of Leishmania infantum Jose Maria Requena, Manuel Soto, Luis Quijada, Carlos Alonso Code Number:OC97158 Sizes of Files: Text: 26K Graphics: Tables (jpg) - 30.8K Line drawings and photographs (jpg) - 22K During recent years, several Leishmania infantum genes have been cloned and characterized. Here, we have summarized the available information on the gene organization and expression in this protozoan parasite. From a comparative analysis, the following outstanding features were found to be common to most of the genes characterized: tandemly organized genes with conserved coding regions and divergent untranslated regions, polycistronic transcription and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. The analysis of chromosomes of L. infantum by pulsed-field electrophoresis showed the existence of both size and number polymorphisms such that each strain has a distinctive molecular karyotype. Despite this variability, highly conserved physical linkage groups exists among different strains of L. infantum and even among Old World Leishmania species. Gene mapping on the L. infantum molecular karyotype evidenced a bias in chromosomal distribution of, at least, the evolutionary conserved genes. Key words: Leishmania infantum - genomic organization - gene expression - pulsed-field electrophoresis - gene localization - molecular karyotype Copyright 1997 Fundacao Oswaldo Cru