Genomic Organization of Leishmania Species

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 macrophages 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 World Leishmania spp. has 36 chromosomes, while New World Leishmania spp. has 34 or 35 chromosomes. The genomic organization and parasitic characteristics have been investigated. Leishmania spp. has a unique genomic organization among eukaryotes; the genes do not have introns, and the chromosomes are smaller with larger numbers of genes confined to a smaller space within the nucleus. Leishmania spp. genes are organized on one or both DNA strands and are transcribed as polycistronic (prokaryotic-like) transcripts from undefined promoters. Regulation of gene expression in the members of Trypanosomatidae differs from that in other eukaryotes. The trans-splicing phenomenon is a necessary step for mRNA processing in lower eukaryotes and is observed in Leishmania spp. Another particular feature of RNA editing in Leishmania spp. is that mitochondrial genes encoding respiratory enzymes are edited and transcribed. This review will discuss the chromosomal and mitochondrial (kinetoplast) genomes of Leishmania spp. as well as the phenomenon of RNA editing in the kinetoplast genome.