LETTER
Regarding the article by Mathison et al. (1), we would like to clarify the identification of a Leishmania spp. parasite. The molecular characterization of an isolate from an HIV-positive patient in 2012 in southern Thailand indicated that the identified parasite was a potential new species named Leishmania siamensis (2). We then collected and analyzed more samples that could identify two distinctive parasites based on sequence polymorphisms and genetic distance analysis of four genetic loci. From these results, lineages PG and TR were applied to the two parasites (3). Meanwhile, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis analysis of these isolates performed at the Reference Center for Leishmania, Montpellier, France, identified lineage PG as a previously reported Leishmania (Mundinia) martiniquensis (MON-229, MHOM/TH/2011/PG) (4). However, the characteristic profiles showed that lineage TR was a new species (MON-324, MHOM/TH/2010/TR); the name L. siamensis was then used by our group. Biometric measurement and genetic data of these two species were compared in a study by Leelayoova et al. (5).
In addition, another research group in Thailand worked on the newly identified Leishmania spp. collected from a northern Thai case of cutaneous leishmaniasis. This parasite was characterized and registered in ZooBank as Leishmania (Mundinia) orientalis (6). Analysis of genetic loci of L. (Mundinia) orientalis and L. siamensis lineage TR (PCM2) showed that these two parasites are homologous. A summary of known cases of leishmaniasis with the corrected species name has already been provided (6). Thus, L. siamensis should be referred to as L. (Mundinia) orientalis but not L. (Mundinia) martiniquensis, as mentioned in the article by Mathison et al. (1).
Footnotes
For the author reply, see https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.00357-21.
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