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.