Inference of Population Structure of Leishmania donovani Strains Isolated from Different Ethiopian Visceral Leishmaniasis Endemic Areas

BACKGROUND: Parasites' evolution in response to parasite-targeted control strategies, such as vaccines and drugs, is known to be influenced by their population genetic structure. The aim of this study was to describe the population structure of Ethiopian strains of Leishmania donovani derived from different areas endemic for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) as a prerequisite for the design of effective control strategies against the disease. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sixty-three strains of L. donovani newly isolated from VL cases in the two main Ethiopian foci, in the north Ethiopia (NE) and south Ethiopia (SE) of the country were investigated by using 14 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. The microsatellite profiles of 60 previously analysed L. donovani strains from Sudan, Kenya and India were included for comparison. Multilocus microsatellite typing placed strains from SE and Kenya (n = 30) in one population and strains from NE and Sudan (n = 65) in another. These two East African populations corresponded to the areas of distribution of two different sand fly vectors. In NE and Sudan Phlebotomus orientalis has been implicated to transmit the parasites and in SE and Kenya P. martini. The genetic differences between parasites from NE and SE are also congruent with some phenotypic differences. Each of these populations was further divided into two subpopulations. Interestingly, in one of the subpopulations of the population NE we observed predominance of strains isolated from HIV-VL co-infected patients and of strains with putative hybrid genotypes. Furthermore, high inbreeding irreconcilable from strict clonal reproduction was found for strains from SE and Kenya indicating a mixed-mating system. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study identified a hierarchical population structure of L. donovani in East Africa. The existence of two main, genetically and geographically separated, populations could reflect different parasite-vector associations, different ecologies and varying host backgrounds and should be further investigated.