{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,9]],"date-time":"2025-12-09T17:20:48Z","timestamp":1765300848046,"version":"3.46.0"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Microbiology Society","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]],"date-time":"2025-12-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765152000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:italic>Leishmania<\/jats:italic>\n                    (\n                    <jats:italic>Sauroleishmania<\/jats:italic>\n                    )\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>Trypanosoma platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    are reptile-associated trypanosomatids transmitted by\n                    <jats:italic>Sergentomyia minuta<\/jats:italic>\n                    sand flies, posing challenges for accurate diagnosis due to the fact that they often occur in sympatry. This study aimed to isolate and characterize new strains of these parasites from reptiles and sand flies using morphological, molecular and genomic approaches. Fifty-five reptiles were captured in Apulia, Italy, and sand flies were collected and dissected under a surveillance framework. Blood samples and gut contents were cultured in Schneider\u2019s Drosophila (SC) and Tobie-Evans (TEv) media. Two positive cultures underwent whole-genome sequencing, and a new conventional PCR (cPCR) protocol targeting the\n                    <jats:italic>\u03b2-tubulin<\/jats:italic>\n                    gene was developed.\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    was isolated from 27% of\n                    <jats:italic>Tarentola mauritanica<\/jats:italic>\n                    geckos using SC medium and 12.5% with TE, while\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    was isolated from 4.15% of geckos exclusively with SC. Cytology confirmed\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    in 25% of gecko blood smears. cPCR revealed\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    in 18.75%,\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    in 12.5% and co-infections in 14.6%. No infections were found in\n                    <jats:italic>Podarcis siculus<\/jats:italic>\n                    or\n                    <jats:italic>Hemidactylus turcicus<\/jats:italic>\n                    . Out of 208\u2009\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .\n                    <jats:italic>minuta<\/jats:italic>\n                    sand flies tested, 19 (9.1%) were positive for\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    , 30 (14.4%) for\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    , and 15 (7.2%) were co-infected with both. The newly developed cPCR assay robustly differentiated these parasites in both reptile and sand fly samples. Monitoring of natural infections in geckos revealed persistent, low-level\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    infections, detectable only by molecular methods, in contrast to the intermittent parasitaemia of\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    , which was detectable by cytology and culture. Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) divergence profiles indicate no evidence of a recent mobilome in\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    , whereas\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    retains a small but detectable fraction of low-divergence transposable-element copies (\u22645\u201310%\u2009K2P; &lt;0.05% of the genome). These findings confirm the sympatric circulation of\n                    <jats:italic>L<\/jats:italic>\n                    . (\n                    <jats:italic>S<\/jats:italic>\n                    .)\n                    <jats:italic>tarentolae<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>T. platydactyli<\/jats:italic>\n                    in geckos and sand flies in southern Italy, highlighting\n                    <jats:italic>T. mauritanica<\/jats:italic>\n                    as the most common reptilian host. The successful isolation and genome assembly of these trypanosomatids, along with the newly developed molecular tool, lay a solid foundation for future epidemiological and comparative genomic investigations, emphasizing the role of reptilian hosts in maintaining trypanosomatid diversity.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1099\/mgen.0.001567","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,9]],"date-time":"2025-12-09T17:16:16Z","timestamp":1765300576000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Epidemiological dynamics of Leishmania (Sauroleishmania) tarentolae and Trypanosoma platydactyli in reptile hosts and sand flies: from isolation to genome assembly"],"prefix":"10.1099","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0287-5252","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Livia","family":"Perles","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9787-932X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jairo Alfonso","family":"Mendoza-Roldan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0575-6758","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcos Antonio","family":"Bezerra-Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1790-1123","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Petr","family":"Volf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, 12800 Prague, Czechia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5091-3017","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Letterio","family":"Giuffr\u00e8","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3893-5296","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Domenico","family":"Giosa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8807-4802","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Epis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, Pediatric CRC \u201cRomeo ed Enrica Invernizzi\u201d\u2013University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0181-4618","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Claudio","family":"Bandi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, Pediatric CRC \u201cRomeo ed Enrica Invernizzi\u201d\u2013University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5093-2525","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Orazio","family":"Romeo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7518-476X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Domenico","family":"Otranto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, 518057 Hong Kong, PR China"},{"name":"Department of Veterinary Medicine, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"345","reference":[{"key":"R1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pt.2024.02.003"},{"key":"R2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/tbed.13580"},{"key":"R3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S2666-5247(21)00265-2"},{"key":"R4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-023-05651-1"},{"key":"R5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-015-0666-z"},{"key":"R6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/mve.12464"},{"key":"R7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0009817"},{"key":"R8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-021-04973-2"},{"key":"R9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0010650"},{"key":"R10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/tbed.14660"},{"key":"R11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1012598"},{"key":"R12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-024-60383-1"},{"key":"R13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/gkr834"},{"key":"R14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/MRA.00050-20"},{"key":"R15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/s0031182000049027"},{"key":"R16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0169-4758(88)90043-9"},{"key":"R17","first-page":"55","article-title":"Investigation on mediterranean kala azar x\u2014a note on Trypanosoma platydactyli and Leishmania tarentolae","volume":"118","author":"Adler","year":"1935","journal-title":"Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci"},{"key":"R18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actatropica.2025.107704"},{"key":"R19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms9112256"},{"key":"R20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-024-78451-x"},{"key":"R21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mimet.2011.08.012"},{"key":"R22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/bty560"},{"key":"R23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgen.1004092"},{"key":"R24","article-title":"Evolutionary genomics of epidemic visceral leishmaniasis in the Indian subcontinent","author":"Imamura","year":"2020","journal-title":"eLife"},{"key":"R25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1242\/bio.059237"},{"key":"R26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-019-11771-z"},{"key":"R27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/g3journal\/jkae076"},{"key":"R28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btp324"},{"key":"R29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btp352"},{"key":"R30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/gigascience\/giab008"},{"key":"R31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btt086"},{"key":"R32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4939-9173-0_14"},{"key":"R33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0031182025100231"},{"key":"R34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3201\/eid1102.040656"},{"key":"R35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1127\/entomologia\/2021\/1178"},{"key":"R36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0031182013001388"},{"key":"R37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/parasitologia4040027"},{"key":"R38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pt.2004.08.009"},{"key":"R39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s42003-022-03591-7"},{"key":"R40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1415109111"},{"key":"R41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/2025.03.25.645178"},{"key":"R42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12864-023-09591-z"},{"key":"R43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btx153"},{"key":"R44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fgene.2022.921090"},{"key":"R45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gene.2006.04.011"},{"key":"R46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1471-2164-10-240"},{"key":"R47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.33084"},{"key":"R48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/gbe\/evz017"},{"key":"R49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.51243"},{"key":"R50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0004303"},{"key":"R51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1920136117"},{"key":"R52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/mBio.01399-18"}],"container-title":["Microbial Genomics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.microbiologyresearch.org\/content\/journal\/mgen\/10.1099\/mgen.0.001567?crawler=true&mimetype=application\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,9]],"date-time":"2025-12-09T17:16:17Z","timestamp":1765300577000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.microbiologyresearch.org\/content\/journal\/mgen\/10.1099\/mgen.0.001567"}},"subtitle":["This article is part of the Microbial Genomics of Eukaryotes collection"],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]]},"references-count":52,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1099\/mgen.0.001567","relation":{},"ISSN":["2057-5858"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2057-5858","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,8]]}}}