MOLECULAR iZ&EMICAL PARAsIToLoGy ELSEVIER Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 80 (1996) I l9- 123 Short communication Leishmania herreri (Kinetoplastida; Trypanosomatidae) is more’ closely related to Endotrypanum (Kinetoplastida; Trypanosomatidae) than to Leishmania ’ Harry A. Noyes, Arantza Perez Camps, Michael L. Chance* Liarrpool School of’ Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 SQA. UK Received 2 May 1996; revised 23 May 1996; accepted 31 May 1996 Keywords: Leishmania herreri; Endotrypanum; Taxonomy; Ribosomal DNA; Macrophage Since L. herreri was first described in 1979 [l], no further isolates have been identified and some doubts have been expressed as to the classification of this parasite. The 16 original strains of L. herrrri were isolated from sloths (Bradypus griseus and Choloepus hoffmanni) and sandflies (Lut- zomyiu trupidoi, Lu. ylephiletor and Lu. shannoni) in Costa Rica. These parasites were classified with the Leishmania principally because they develop as intracellular amastigotes in vitro in primary hamster embryo tissue. They also produce transi- tory amastigotes ( < 48 h) at the site of inocula- Abbrrciations: RAPD, random amplified polymorphic DNA: SSU, rRNA small subunit ribosomal RNA. * Corresponding author. Tel: + 44 I51 7089393; fax: + 44 I51 7088733. ’ Riote: Nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data base with the accession number:- U50043. tion into hamsters. L. herreri were allocated to incertae sedis in a later revision of the Leishmaniu due to the very low nuclear DNA buoyant density of these parasites and the development of sphaeromastigotes in hamster lesions [2]. We have examined the three survivors of the original L. herreri isolates, which were deposited in the cryobank at the Liverpool School of Trop- ical Medicine. A number of methods were used to determine their relationship both to Leishmania and to Endotrypunum reference strains. Strains LV341 and LV344 were inoculated into CD1 mouse peritoneal exudate macrophage cul- tures at a ratio of IO: 1 and incubated at 37°C for 24, 48 and 72 h. Both LV341 and LV344 were capable of infecting some macrophages but the infection rate was less than O.l%, and the only evidence of intracellular multiplication was a sin- gle macrophage infected with eight LV341 amastigotes. DNA prepared by standard methods Ol66-6851;96,‘$15.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PII Sl66-6851(96)02679-5