Genetic factors controlling susceptibility to Leishmania major infection in the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae).

Studies of the genetic factors controlling Leishmania major infection in Phlebotomus papatasi were carried out using 2 different sand fly lines: one highly susceptible and the other refractory to the parasite. L. major infection rates in both F1 and F2 generations from reciprocal crosses and in backcrosses between the parent lines showed that susceptibility and refractoriness of Ph. papatasi to infection with L. major are controlled by less than 1 gene. Neither susceptibility nor refractoriness is dominant over the other.