Leishmania and Sauroleishmania: the use of random amplified polymorphic DNA for the identification of parasites from vertebrates and invertebrates.

We used the RAPD-PCR method for distinguishing the main Old World Leishmania parasites Leishmania tropica, L. major, and L. infantum and applied it to Sauroleishmania species from Iran. Twelve out of 21 tested primers were suitable for identification of these parasites. The Jaccard similarity index was 0.30 for L. tropica and L. infantum as well as for L. major and L. infantum. The similarity coefficient for L. major and L. infantum was 0.22 and for L. tropica and L. major it was 0.26. These data agree well with established phylogenetic/ taxonomic classification. The index between different isolates derived from various hosts and sandfly vectors for the same Leishmania species was 1, indicating that this method is suitable for epidemiological analysis.