Leishmania ( Leishmania ) ellisi, Sapp & LoW & Nine & Nascimento & Qvarnstrom & Barratt, 2024

Sapp, Sarah G. H., LoW, Ross, Nine, Gabriela, Nascimento, Fernanda S., Qvarnstrom, Yvonne & Barratt, Joel L. N., 2024, Genetic characterization and description of Leishmania (Leishmania) ellisi sp. nov.: a new human-infecting species from the USA, Parasitology Research (52) 123 (1), pp. 52-52 : 52-

Leishmania ( Leishmania) ellisi sp. nov. Barratt, Sapp, and Qvarnstrom 2023

Synonyms: Leishmania sp. strain 218-L139, Leishmania sp. strain Arizona.

Taxonomy: Phylum Euglenozoa (Cavalier-Smith, 1981) emend. (Cavalier-Smith, 2016); class Kinetoplastea (Honigberg, 1963) emend. (Vickerman, 1976); subclass Metakinetoplastina (Vickerman, 2004); order Trypanosomatida (Kent, 1880) ; family Trypanosomatidae (Doflein, 1901) ; subfamily Leishmaniinae (Maslov and Lukes 2012) emend. (Shaw, Camargo and Teixeira 2016) ; genus Leishmania (Ross, 1903) ; subgenus Leishmania (Shaw, Camargo and Teixeira, 2016) ; species Leishmania ( Leishmania) ellisi (Sapp, Qvarnstrom, Barratt, 2023) .

Type host: Humans, Homo sapiens . Vector is currently unknown.

Type locality: Arizona, USA .

Type material: Hapanotype , cryopreserved promastigotes stored in liquid nitrogen and original touch impression slide archived at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA .

Strain designation: MHOM / US /2018/L139.

Morphology: Cultured promastigotes are an average of 10.1 ± 2.2 µm in length (including the flagellum), ranging between 6.1 and 13.4 µm in length. Amastigotes in fixed and stained touch preparations are an average of 2.7 ± 0.26 µm on the longest axis, with a range of 2.7 to 3.2 µm. In Giemsa-stained preparations made from cultures, promastigotes are an average of 9.6 ± 3.4 µm in length (flagellum included), with a range of 5.7 to 15.4 µm. Etymology: Leishmania ( Leishmania) ellisi is named in honor of parasitologist and Emeritus Professor J. T. Ellis, whose career in parasitology began with a PhD dissertation on the molecular phylogeny of Leishmania species.

Diagnosis: Leishmania ( Leishmania) ellisi is most closely related to Leishmania ( Leishmania) mexicana and Leishmania ( Leishmania) amazonensis . In Giemsa-stained preparations, its amastigotes are typical to those of other Leishmania species, and its promastigotes are typical in appearance compared to other Leishmania ( Leishmania) species. Leishmania ( Leishmania) ellisi possesses unique sequences at its 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, Casein Kinase II α chain, Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and the RNA polymerase II largest subunit genes, and has a unique maxicircle sequence; sequences for these loci are publicly available under GenBank accession numbers OR689570, OR689569, OR695082, OR695080, OR695081, and OR701861, respectively.