Leishmania braziliensis MHOM/BR/75/M2904 Genome Project

The Disease

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.

Unlike previous species sequenced, Leishmania braziliensis is a New World pathogen and currently the only Leishmania genome from the Viannia species group. As well as causing localised cutaneous lesions in affected people, Leishmania braziliensis can also result in a more destructive, progressive infection in mucosal tissue in a proportion of patients. For more information on this disease we recommend the WHO website [( http://www.who.int/leishmaniasis/disease_epidemiology/en/index.html )].

The Genome

We have generated a whole genome shotgun, to approximately 5x coverage, of Leishmania braziliensis clone MHOM/BR/75M2904. This project is a collaboration with Universidade de Sao Paulo - FMRP - USP and Debbie Smith (Imperial College).

The Database

GeneDB has been funded by Wellcome Trust to provide full curation support for kinetoplastida genomes to meet the needs of the community. New annotations are constantly being added to keep up with published manuscripts and feedback from the Trypanosomatid research community. In collaboration with GeneDB, the EuPathDB genomic sequence data and annotations are regularly deposited on TriTrypDB where they can be integrated with other datasets and queried using customized queries.

Data Release

The genome is now published as part of a comparative genome analysis with L. major and L. infantum in Peacock et al, Nature Genetics, 39 839-847 and is available for use without restriction. However, the annotation is pro-actively updated and curated. If you find the this resource helpful in your research, acknowledging the project in your publications will help insure its longevity.