Leishmania donovani

Leishmania donovani
Leishmania donovani in bone marrow cell
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
(unranked):	Excavata
Phylum:	Euglenozoa
Class:	Kinetoplastida
Order:	Trypanosomatida
Family:	Trypanosomatidae
Genus:	Leishmania
Species:	L. donovani
Binomial name
Leishmania donovani (Laveran et Mesnil, 1903) Ross, 1903

Leishmania donovani is a species of intracellular parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania, a group of haemoflagellate kinetoplastids that cause the disease leishmaniasis. It is a human blood parasite responsible for visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar, the most severe form of leishmaniasis. It infects the mononuclear phagocyte system including spleen, liver and bone marrow. Infection is transmitted by species of sandfly belonging to the genus Phlebotomus in Old World and Lutzomyia in New World. Therefore, the parasite is prevalent throughout tropical and temperate regions including Africa (mostly in Sudan), China, India, Nepal, southern Europe, Russia and South America. It is responsible for thousands of deaths every year and has spread to 88 countries, with 350 million people at constant risk of infection and 0.5 million new cases in a year.

L. donovani was independently discovered by two British medical officers William Boog Leishman in Netley, England, and Charles Donovan in Madras, India, in 1903. However, the correct taxonomy was provided by Ronald Ross. The parasite requires two different hosts for a complete life cycle, humans as the definitive host and sandflies as the intermediate host. In some parts of the world other mammals, especially canines, act as reservoir hosts. In human cell they exist as small, spherical and unflagellated amastigote form; while they are elongated with flagellum as promastigote form in sandflies. Unlike other parasitic protists they are unable to directly penetrate the host cell, and are dependent upon phagocytosis. The whole genome sequence of L. donovani obtained from southeastern Nepal was published in 2011.

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