IJSRP, Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2014 Edition [ISSN 2250-3153]
Thiruvarutchelvan S, Dr. Stephen Heath
Abstract:
Leishmaniasis is a widely spread disease caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania. The unique life cycle of this parasite has two main stages of existence, amastigote and promastigote. The non-infective amastigotes, found in the primary host (example: human) when taken up by certain species of sand fly (Phlebotomine) whilst ingesting the blood of the infected person, were transformed into promastigotes which is the infective form of the parasite and this process takes place in the mid-gut of the sandfly. One of specific proteins in the parasite’s genome in the transformation process, the adhesion protein gene was selected for this homology study.