TY - JOUR
T1 - Phylogenomic reconstruction supports supercontinent origins for Leishmania
AU - Harkins, Kelly M.
AU - Schwartz, Rachel S.
AU - Cartwright, Reed A.
AU - Stone, Anne C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Genomic DNA from Leishmania isolates was obtained from the lab of Diane McMahon-Pratt at the Yale School of Public Health and from Lucille Floeter-Winter at the University of São Paulo. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant [grant number BCS-1232582 to K. Harkins and A. Stone], internal funds from ASU School of Life Sciences [R. Cartwright], and a National Science Foundation Advances in Bioinformatics Grant [grant number DBI-1356548 to R. Cartwright]. Sudhir Kumar and Jay Taylor provided guidance and feedback on the development of the project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Leishmania, a genus of parasites transmitted to human hosts and mammalian/reptilian reservoirs by an insect vector, is the causative agent of the human disease complex leishmaniasis. The evolutionary relationships within the genus Leishmania and its origins are the source of ongoing debate, reflected in conflicting phylogenetic and biogeographic reconstructions. This study employs a recently described bioinformatics method, SISRS, to identify over 200,000 informative sites across the genome from newly sequenced and publicly available Leishmania data. This dataset is used to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of this genus. Additionally, we constructed a large multi-gene dataset, using it to reconstruct the phylogeny and estimate divergence dates for species. We conclude that the genus Leishmania evolved at least 90-100. million. years ago, supporting a modified version of the Multiple Origins hypothesis that we call the Supercontinent hypothesis. According to this scenario, separate Leishmania clades emerged prior to, and during, the breakup of Gondwana. Additionally, we confirm that reptile-infecting Leishmania are derived from mammalian forms and that the species that infect porcupines and sloths form a clade long separated from other species. Finally, we firmly place the guinea-pig infecting species, Leishmania enriettii, the globally dispersed Leishmania siamensis, and the newly identified Australian species from a kangaroo, as sibling species whose distribution arises from the ancient connection between Australia, Antarctica, and South America.
AB - Leishmania, a genus of parasites transmitted to human hosts and mammalian/reptilian reservoirs by an insect vector, is the causative agent of the human disease complex leishmaniasis. The evolutionary relationships within the genus Leishmania and its origins are the source of ongoing debate, reflected in conflicting phylogenetic and biogeographic reconstructions. This study employs a recently described bioinformatics method, SISRS, to identify over 200,000 informative sites across the genome from newly sequenced and publicly available Leishmania data. This dataset is used to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of this genus. Additionally, we constructed a large multi-gene dataset, using it to reconstruct the phylogeny and estimate divergence dates for species. We conclude that the genus Leishmania evolved at least 90-100. million. years ago, supporting a modified version of the Multiple Origins hypothesis that we call the Supercontinent hypothesis. According to this scenario, separate Leishmania clades emerged prior to, and during, the breakup of Gondwana. Additionally, we confirm that reptile-infecting Leishmania are derived from mammalian forms and that the species that infect porcupines and sloths form a clade long separated from other species. Finally, we firmly place the guinea-pig infecting species, Leishmania enriettii, the globally dispersed Leishmania siamensis, and the newly identified Australian species from a kangaroo, as sibling species whose distribution arises from the ancient connection between Australia, Antarctica, and South America.
KW - Evolution
KW - Leishmania
KW - Phylogenomics
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U2 - 10.1016/j.meegid.2015.11.030
DO - 10.1016/j.meegid.2015.11.030
M3 - Article
C2 - 26708057
AN - SCOPUS:84952646880
SN - 1567-1348
VL - 38
SP - 101
EP - 109
JO - Infection, Genetics and Evolution
JF - Infection, Genetics and Evolution
ER -