APPLICATION OF POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION WITH SPECIFIC AND ARBITRARY PRIMERS TO IDENTIFICATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF LEISHMANIA PARASITES

Two oligonucleotide primers Lsmc1 and Lsmv1 derived from the conserved and the variable region of a major class kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) minic ircle (pLURkE3) of Leishmania strain UR6 were used for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in order to amplify a 461-bp fragment from the kD NAs of different Leishmania species. These primers amplify the specifi c fragment from the kDNAs of cutaneous species only. The cutaneous spe cies can further be distinguished by randomly amplified polymorphic DN A (RAPD) analysis of the kDNAs of these organisms using arbitrarily ch osen oligonucleotides. The arbitrary primers also generate polymorphic DNA fingerprints at the genomic level with different L. donovani isol ates. The results indicate that the PCR and arbitrarily primed PCR (AP -PCR) may be extremely useful approaches for identifying and distingui shing Leishmania parasites.