LEISHMANIA AND THE LEISHMANIASES E. Cupolillo á F. Aguiar Alves á L.R.N. Brahim M.F. Naiff á L.O.R. Pereira á M.P. Oliveira-Neto A. Falqueto á G. Grimaldi Jr Recent advances in the taxonomy of the New World leishmanial parasites Published online: 31 July 2001 Ó Springer-Verlag 2001 Introduction Leishmaniasis is one of the major parasitic diseases in many countries of sub)tropical America, where it con- stitutes a signi®cant public health problem [1]. The dis- ease, presenting as dierent clinical forms, is regarded as associated with several parasites which have been named as distinct Leishmania species [2]. American visceral and cutaneous leishmaniases are basically zoonoses; humans are only incidental hosts in the life cycle of New World Leishmania [3]. Each of the various pathogenic parasite species is maintained in a zoonotic cycle involving wild or domestic animals or both [2, 4]. The Leishmania spp. are all transmitted by the bites of infected phlebotomine sand¯ies Diptera: Psychodi- dae), but only few of the 350 dierent sand¯y Lut- zomyia) species known from the Americas have been implicated as proven or suspected vectors of human le- ishmaniasis [1, 3, 4]. In general, a close ecological rela- tionship exists between the sand¯y vectors) of a given parasite and its animal reservoirs). In some cases, the same phlebotomine and mammalian species serve as vectors and reservoirs of a given Leishmania species [e.g., L. L.) chagasi] throughout its geographic range; with other parasites [e.g., L.V.)braziliensis] several dierent sand¯y and animals species are involved in dierent ecological and geographic regions [1, 2]. Control of leishmaniasis in the New World is, therefore, complicated by the variety of dierent Leish- mania species and their diverse clinical manifestations and by the fact that each parasite species has a unique epidemiological pattern. However, until eective vac- cines are available, environmental-oriented control measures such as vector and reservoir control and ag- gressive epidemiological surveillance) will continue to be the best options for prevention and containment of the disease [5]. Molecular taxonomy and relationships of New World Leishmania species Parasitic protozoa of the genus Leishmania Ross, 1903 Protozoa: Trypanosomatidae) are a biologically diverse group of microorganisms [4]. Taxonomic studies of Leishmania isolates from the New World indicate tre- mendous diversity within this genus [6]. A number of new Leishmania species have been described recently from sylvan areas of the Neotropics [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Some other taxonomically distinct taxa, isolated from wild mammals and vectors in the Brazilian Amazon Region, have also been described as unnamed new species [1, 4, 13, 14]. More recent studies have shown that most of these parasites represent strain variants of a given Leishmania species [15, 16]. Much of this infor- mation on the characterization and classi®cation of the various New World Leishmania was obtained by a combination of biochemical zymodeme analysis) and immunological serodeme analysis employing mono- clonal antibodies, mAbs) methods [1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18]. More recently, we have applied an integrated set of approaches towards understanding evolutionary/phylogenetical relationships among try- panosomatids, with emphasis on parasites within the genus Leishmania [19, 20, 21]. A large sample of New World Leishmania over 4,000 stocks isolated from humans, a variety of other mam- malian hosts, and sand¯ies in many areas of tropical and subtropical America) has been analyzed in our labora- tories by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis MLEE). Med Microbiol Immunol 2001) 190: 57±60 DOI 10.1007/s004300100080 E. Cupolillo á F. Aguiar Alves á L.R.N. Brahim M.F. Nai á L.O.R. Pereira á M.P. Oliveira-Neto G. Grimaldi Jr &) Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; Hospital Evandro Chagas/Fiocruz, Av. Brazil 4365, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil E-mail: grimaldi@gene.dbbm.®ocruz.br Fax: ++55-21-2801589 A. Falqueto Centro BiomeÂdico, UFES, VitoÂria, ES, Brazil