Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Leptomonas seymouri in Leishmania infections: Genetic mechanisms of pre-adaptation to the vertebrate hostâ??s environment

International Conference on Parasitology

August 24-26, 2015 Philadelphia, USA

Vyacheslav Yurchenko

University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol

Abstract:

The co-infection cases involving dixenous Leishmania spp. (mostly of the L. donovani complex) and presumably monoxenous trypanosomatids in mammalian hosts including humans are well documented. The main opportunistic parasite has been identified as Leptomonas seymouri of the sub-family Leishmaniinae. The molecular mechanisms allowing a typical parasite of insects to withstand elevated temperature and substantially different conditions of vertebrateâ??s tissue are not understood. Here we demonstrate that L. seymouri is well pre-adapted for the environment of the warm-blooded host. We sequenced the genome and compared the whole transcriptome profiles of this species cultivated at low (mimicking insect) and high (mimicking vertebrate host) temperatures and identified genes and pathways differentially expressed under these experimental conditions (for example, genes involved in oxidative stress response, etc). Importantly, L. seymouri can survive in sand fly insect vectors capable of transmitting Leishmania parasites, Phlebotomus argentipes and P. orientalis, although the intensity of infection compared to Leishmania is significantly lower. We concluded that although Leptomonas seymouri has a capacity to co-infect vertebrates along with Leishmania spp., additional factors are required for establishing a stable infection of this monoxenous trypanosomatid.

Biography :

Vyacheslav Yurchenko is currently an Assistant Professor and the Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Protozoology at the Life Science Research Centre, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. He received his PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the Moscow State University (1999) and conducted Postdoctoral research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Rockefeller University in NY. His laboratory is involved in research of monoxenous Trypanosomatidae and mechanisms governing virulence of Leishmania.

Email: Vyacheslav.Yurchenko@osu.cz