The species of the L. donovani complex are found in different geographical regions. L. donovani is the primary cause of visceral leishmaniasis in the Indian subcontinent and East Africa, L. infantum in the the Mediterranean region and L. chagasi in the New World. While the last two species are genetically identical, all three species are very similar. L. infantum was chosen as the second Leishmania species to sequence after L. major because it is part of the L. donovani complex and is an adaptable species for experimentation. For more information on visceral Leishmaniasis we recommend the WHO website

Published Genome Data

A whole genome shotgun, to ~5x coverage, of L. infantum clone JPCM5 (MCAN/ES/98/LLM-877) was generated. This was completed in October 2003. This project is a collaboration with Professor Debbie Smith (University of York) and Professor Jeremy Mottram (University of Glasgow).

• Comparative genomic analysis of three Leishmania species that cause diverse human disease.

  Peacock CS, Seeger K, Harris D, Murphy L, Ruiz JC, Quail MA, Peters N, Adlem E, Tivey A, Aslett M, Kerhornou A, Ivens A, Fraser A, Rajandream MA, Carver T, Norbertczak H, Chillingworth T, Hance Z, Jagels K, Moule S, Ormond D, Rutter S, Squares R, Whitehead S, Rabbinowitsch E, Arrowsmith C, White B, Thurston S, Bringaud F, Baldauf SL, Faulconbridge A, Jeffares D, Depledge DP, Oyola SO, Hilley JD, Brito LO, Tosi LR, Barrell B, Cruz AK, Mottram JC, Smith DF and Berriman M

  Nature genetics 2007;39;7;839-47

  PUBMED: 17572675; PMC: 2592530; DOI: 10.1038/ng2053