Leishmania mexicana
The Leishmania parasite is an intracellular pathogen of the immune system targeting macrophages and dendritic cells. The disease Leishmaniasis affects the populations of 88 counties worldwide with symptoms ranging from disfiguring cutaneous and muco-cutaneous lesions that can cause widespread destruction of mucous membranes to visceral disease affecting the haemopoetic organs.
Data Downloads
Leishmania mexicana is the fourth Leishmania species to be sequenced at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and is representative of the fourth principle species complex that causes disease in man: in this case, cutaneous disease in the New World (Central and South America). It is known that there are significant differences in virulence factors between L. mexicana complex organisms and L. major parasites (that cause cutaneous disease in the Old World), while these species also give rise to different disease pathologies and elicit distinct host immune responses that mediate susceptibility or resistance to infection.
Published Genome Data
The L. mexicana genome is roughly 32 MBPs in size, with a karyotype of 34 chromosomes. The G+C content is approximately 59%. This project is in collaboration with Debbie Smith (University of York) and Jeremy Mottram (University of Glasgow). L. mexicana MHOM/GT/2001/U1103 (originally from Byron Arana's lab in Guatemala and obtained from Paul Bates at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) was isolated from a 30 year old male patient with a single ear lesion.
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Data Use Statement
This sequencing centre plans on publishing the completed and annotated sequences in a peer-reviewed journal as soon as possible. Permission of the principal investigator should be obtained before publishing analyses of the sequence/open reading frames/genes on a chromosome or genome scale. See our data sharing policy.
Sequencing enquiries
Please address all sequencing enquiries to: pathinfo@sanger.ac.uk
