Leishmania major strain Friedlin 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.

Further information can be found on the World Health Organization web site .

The Genome

The L. major Friedlin genome is 32.8Mb in size, with a karyotype of 36 chromosomes. The G+C content is approximately 63%.

The Pathogen Genomics group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute played a major role in sequencing the genome of Leishmania major (see Ivens et al .) Details of the centres involved and which chromosomes they sequenced, are given here . The sequence data were obtained by adopting several parallel approaches, including complete cosmid sequencing, whole chromosome shotguns and/or BAC sequencing/skimming.

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

This annotated genome sequence has been published in Ivens et al., Science 309(5733):436-442 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.