TY - JOUR
T1 - Is lipophosphoglycan a virulence factor? A surprising diversity between Leishmania species
AU - Turco, Salvatore J.
AU - Späth, Gerald F.
AU - Beverley, Stephen M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Deborah Dobson, Mike Ferguson, Malcolm McConville, Diane McMahon-Pratt, David Sacks and Phil Scott for discussions, and several anonymous referees for constructive suggestions. Our work discussed here is supported by grants from the NIH (AI31078) and Human Frontiers (GFS).
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Lipophosphoglycan is a prominent member of the phosphoglycan-containing surface glycoconjugates of Leishmania. Genetic tests enable confirmation of its role in parasite virulence and permit discrimination between the roles of lipophosphoglycan and related glycoconjugates. When two different lipophosphoglycan biosynthetic genes from Leishmania major were knocked out, there was a clear loss of virulence in several steps of the infectious cycle but, with Leishmania mexicana, no effect on virulence was found. This points to an unexpected diversity in the reliance of Leishmania species on virulence factors, a finding underscored by recent studies showing great diversity in the host response to Leishmania species.
AB - Lipophosphoglycan is a prominent member of the phosphoglycan-containing surface glycoconjugates of Leishmania. Genetic tests enable confirmation of its role in parasite virulence and permit discrimination between the roles of lipophosphoglycan and related glycoconjugates. When two different lipophosphoglycan biosynthetic genes from Leishmania major were knocked out, there was a clear loss of virulence in several steps of the infectious cycle but, with Leishmania mexicana, no effect on virulence was found. This points to an unexpected diversity in the reliance of Leishmania species on virulence factors, a finding underscored by recent studies showing great diversity in the host response to Leishmania species.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035003815&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S1471-4922(01)01895-5
DO - 10.1016/S1471-4922(01)01895-5
M3 - Review article
C2 - 11323305
AN - SCOPUS:0035003815
SN - 1471-4922
VL - 17
SP - 223
EP - 226
JO - Trends in Parasitology
JF - Trends in Parasitology
IS - 5
ER -