Leishmania parasites reveal their sexuality
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - 07:03
in Biology & Nature
With 16 million people affected worldwide, mainly in developing countries, leishmaniosis (also called leishmaniasis) is a major public health problem. It is, however, a neglected disease, from the point of view of both treatment and research effort spent on it. In particular, little is yet known in biological terms about the parasites responsible, called Leishmania. How do they reproduce? How do they evolve and adapt to their environment and hosts, and to drugs, and so on? A recent study lifts the veil on their complex biology.