Leishmania

Abstract

It is more than 125 years since Piotr Fokich Borovsky reported in 1898 on Leishmania parasites as the etiologic agent of oriental cutaneous leishmaniasis. Publication of the first Leishmania genome in 2005 propelled research on this organism into a new dimension. Genome information together with reverse genetics, -omics methodologies, and bioinformatics have become the modern point of departure to study also these pathogens. In the following chapter, selected aspects of the biology of Leishmania spp. are introduced with a non-familiar reader in mind. The aim was to integrate genome information into the presentation of cell morphology, sub-cellular organization, molecular biology, and metabolic adaptation to different habitats as these unicellular protozoans revolve through their lifecycle.