Striking similarities at the morphological, molecular and
biological levels exist between many trypanosomatids isolated
from sylvatic insects and/or vertebrate reservoir hosts that make
the identification of medically important parasites demanding.
Some molecular data have pointed to the relationship between some
Leishmania species and Endotrypanum, which has an
important epidemiological significance and can be helpful to
understand the evolution of those parasites. In this study, we
have demonstrated a close genetic relationship between
Endotrypanum and two new leishmanial species, L. (V.)
colombiensis and L. (V.) equatorensis. We have used (a)
numerical zymotaxonomy and (b) the variability of the internal
transcribed spacers of the rRNA genes to examine relationships in
this group. The evolutionary trees obtained revealed high genetic
similarity between L. (V.) colombiensis, L. (V.)
equatorensis and Endotrypanum, forming a tight cluster
of parasites. Based on further results of (c) minicircle kDNA
heterogeneity analysis and (d) measurement of the sialidase
activity these parasites were also grouped together.
