The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors.
Invertebrate stages of Leishmania are capable of genetic exchange during their extracellular growth and development in the sand fly vector. Here we explore two variables: the ability of diverse L. major strains from across its natural range to undergo mating in pairwise tests; and the timing of the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2013-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS Genetics |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3723561?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1828396411179237376 |
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| author | Ehud Inbar Natalia S Akopyants Melanie Charmoy Audrey Romano Phillip Lawyer Dia-Eldin A Elnaiem Florence Kauffmann Mourad Barhoumi Michael Grigg Katherine Owens Michael Fay Deborah E Dobson Jahangheer Shaik Stephen M Beverley David Sacks |
| author_facet | Ehud Inbar Natalia S Akopyants Melanie Charmoy Audrey Romano Phillip Lawyer Dia-Eldin A Elnaiem Florence Kauffmann Mourad Barhoumi Michael Grigg Katherine Owens Michael Fay Deborah E Dobson Jahangheer Shaik Stephen M Beverley David Sacks |
| author_sort | Ehud Inbar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Invertebrate stages of Leishmania are capable of genetic exchange during their extracellular growth and development in the sand fly vector. Here we explore two variables: the ability of diverse L. major strains from across its natural range to undergo mating in pairwise tests; and the timing of the appearance of hybrids and their developmental stage associations within both natural (Phlebotomus duboscqi) and unnatural (Lutzomyia longipalpis) sand fly vectors. Following co-infection of flies with parental lines bearing independent drug markers, doubly-drug resistant hybrid progeny were selected, from which 96 clonal lines were analyzed for DNA content and genotyped for parent alleles at 4-6 unlinked nuclear loci as well as the maxicircle DNA. As seen previously, the majority of hybrids showed '2n' DNA contents, but with a significant number of '3n' and one '4n' offspring. In the natural vector, 97% of the nuclear loci showed both parental alleles; however, 3% (4/150) showed only one parental allele. In the unnatural vector, the frequency of uniparental inheritance rose to 10% (27/275). We attribute this to loss of heterozygosity after mating, most likely arising from aneuploidy which is both common and temporally variable in Leishmania. As seen previously, only uniparental inheritance of maxicircle kDNA was observed. Hybrids were recovered at similar efficiencies in all pairwise crosses tested, suggesting that L. major lacks detectable 'mating types' that limit free genetic exchange. In the natural vector, comparisons of the timing of hybrid formation with the presence of developmental stages suggest nectomonads as the most likely sexually competent stage, with hybrids emerging well before the first appearance of metacyclic promastigotes. These studies provide an important perspective on the prevalence of genetic exchange in natural populations of L. major and a guide for experimental studies to understand the biology of mating. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:29:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b5c5aca27260412aba323ce8dc0eed00 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-7390 1553-7404 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T08:29:32Z |
| publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
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| series | PLoS Genetics |
| spelling | doaj.art-b5c5aca27260412aba323ce8dc0eed002022-12-22T01:56:09ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042013-01-0197e100367210.1371/journal.pgen.1003672The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors.Ehud InbarNatalia S AkopyantsMelanie CharmoyAudrey RomanoPhillip LawyerDia-Eldin A ElnaiemFlorence KauffmannMourad BarhoumiMichael GriggKatherine OwensMichael FayDeborah E DobsonJahangheer ShaikStephen M BeverleyDavid SacksInvertebrate stages of Leishmania are capable of genetic exchange during their extracellular growth and development in the sand fly vector. Here we explore two variables: the ability of diverse L. major strains from across its natural range to undergo mating in pairwise tests; and the timing of the appearance of hybrids and their developmental stage associations within both natural (Phlebotomus duboscqi) and unnatural (Lutzomyia longipalpis) sand fly vectors. Following co-infection of flies with parental lines bearing independent drug markers, doubly-drug resistant hybrid progeny were selected, from which 96 clonal lines were analyzed for DNA content and genotyped for parent alleles at 4-6 unlinked nuclear loci as well as the maxicircle DNA. As seen previously, the majority of hybrids showed '2n' DNA contents, but with a significant number of '3n' and one '4n' offspring. In the natural vector, 97% of the nuclear loci showed both parental alleles; however, 3% (4/150) showed only one parental allele. In the unnatural vector, the frequency of uniparental inheritance rose to 10% (27/275). We attribute this to loss of heterozygosity after mating, most likely arising from aneuploidy which is both common and temporally variable in Leishmania. As seen previously, only uniparental inheritance of maxicircle kDNA was observed. Hybrids were recovered at similar efficiencies in all pairwise crosses tested, suggesting that L. major lacks detectable 'mating types' that limit free genetic exchange. In the natural vector, comparisons of the timing of hybrid formation with the presence of developmental stages suggest nectomonads as the most likely sexually competent stage, with hybrids emerging well before the first appearance of metacyclic promastigotes. These studies provide an important perspective on the prevalence of genetic exchange in natural populations of L. major and a guide for experimental studies to understand the biology of mating.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3723561?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Ehud Inbar Natalia S Akopyants Melanie Charmoy Audrey Romano Phillip Lawyer Dia-Eldin A Elnaiem Florence Kauffmann Mourad Barhoumi Michael Grigg Katherine Owens Michael Fay Deborah E Dobson Jahangheer Shaik Stephen M Beverley David Sacks The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. PLoS Genetics |
| title | The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. |
| title_full | The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. |
| title_fullStr | The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. |
| title_short | The mating competence of geographically diverse Leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors. |
| title_sort | mating competence of geographically diverse leishmania major strains in their natural and unnatural sand fly vectors |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3723561?pdf=render |
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