DEVELOPMENT OF A GENUS-SPECIFIC PRIMER SET FOR DETECTION OF LEISHMANIA PARASITES BY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

We have compared the sequences of a major class of kinetoplast DNA (kD NA) minicircle (pLURkE3) of Leishmania strain UR6 with other minicircl e sequences from different Leishmania species. Alignment of these sequ ences allowed the selection of a pair of oligonucleotides suitable as primers in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is specific for Leish mania parasites. PCR with this genus-specific primer set is capable of detecting 1 femtogram of kDNA. These primers have been tested with kD NAs from both old world and new world Leishmania species. The results indicate that the primers may be suitable for detection of any kind of leishmaniasis.