Hamarsheh O.
Department of Biological Sciences, Al-Quds University, P.O. Box 51000, East Jerusalem, Palestine 
Parasites & Vectors Jan. 2011.  4: 9. doi:10.1186/1756-3305-4-9

Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli) (Diptera: Psychodidae) is the main vector of Leishmania major Yakimoff & Schokhor (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Old World. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) was extensively used to type different L. major stocks allover the world. Multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) has been recently used to investigate P. papatasi sand flies at population and subpopulation levels. In this article, the association between geographical distribution of L. major zymodemes and the distribution of populations and subpopulations of L. major vector; P. papatasi are discussed.

Link to the article 

VBORNET comment: 2010-04-12

Hamarsheh reviews the association between geographical distribution of Leishmania major zymodemes and the distribution of Phlebotomus papatasi, the proven vector of Leishmania major, in the east Mediterranean region. Three main L. major zymodems, MON 23, MON 25 and MON 26 and several variants of MON 26 were reported. Two of them, MON 25 and MON 26, appear predominant and widespread. Authors detailed the results obtained using multilocus microsatellites for Phlebotomus papatasi. Two main populations A and B and 6 subpopulations (A1 to A4, B1 and B2) were identified. The main conclusion of this review is that the wide distribution range of P. papatasi, limited to a certain number of populations and subpopulations, is in correlation with the wide distribution of L. major also limited to a certain group of main zymodemes like MON 25, MON 26 and MON 23, and to other less prevalent variants.