FIG 1.

MLEE-based taxonomy of the Leishmania genus as listed by Schönian et al. (21), but with the addition of L. siamensis (22), L. martiniquensis (23), L. adleri, and L. hoogstraali (24). The various levels are indicated by their respective colors. Several species (black) are grouped into “species complexes,” or “complexes” (blue), whereby the complex is named after one of its species. The underlined species are those documented in the studies analyzed in Currently Applied Methods, which are those relevant for human and domestic animal diseases. Species names between brackets are not recognized as separate entities by most authors and in fact are part of the species listed above them. L. chagasi is a synonym of L. infantum of the New World. °, some L. pifanoi strains are more related to L. amazonensis than to L. mexicana (61, 62); *, several authors have reported L. major-like parasites from the New World (62, 79–83). The figure does not represent a dendrogram with evolutionary relationships but a practical classification system.