Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, VOLUME 121 | 2026
Research Articles
Chromosome level genome assembly of the World Health standards Leishmania (Viannia) guyanensis M4147 and L. (V.) shawi M8408 using a hybrid sequencing approach
1Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Departamento de Parasitologia, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
2Instituto Evandro Chagas, Departamento de Parasitologia, Ananindeua, PA, Brasil
3Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina, Departamento de Patologia, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
4Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Recife, PE, Brasil
5Universidade Federal do Pará, Núcleo de Medicina Tropical, Belém, PA, Brasill
DOI: 10.1590/0074-02760250270
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ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND The Leishmania (Viannia) subgenus contains important pathogens that cause a variety of different clinical forms of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Americas. Their response to antimonial chemotherapy differs according to species. Having high-quality genomic resources of these species is a significant step towards investigating and understanding these factors.
OBJECTIVES This study aims to characterise the main genomic features of L. (V.) guyanensis strain MHOM/BR/75/M4147 and L. (V.) shawi strain MCEB/BR/84/M8408.
METHODS Genomes were sequenced combining short- and long-read sequencing platforms and assembled, scaffolded, and polished using Flye2, Ragtag, and Pilon, respectively. Annotations were performed using mainly similarity and profile search methods, and phylogenetic analyses were performed using the maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference approaches, using IQ-TREE and MrBayes, respectively.
FINDINGS De novo assembly produced genome sizes of 32.27 Mb for L. guyanensis and 32.41 Mb for L. shawi, and predicted 8,505 and 8,592 protein-coding genes, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on these assemblies confidently places L. guyanensis and L. shawi as the closest known relatives to L. panamensis within the Viannia clade.
MAIN CONCLUSIONS These genomes will increase the knowledge about the subgenus L. (Viannia) in the Americas and also represent valuable information for future comparative studies with other human pathogenic Leishmania spp.
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Financial support: CNPq (Grant/Award Numbers: 304565/2017-2, 307937/2021-6, 305607/2022-7 and 140430/2021-0 to JJS and POTV).This research was supported by FIOTEC VPGDI 015-FIO-19 and FAPESP 2014/50315-0 to ACSL, FTS and CMCG.
+ Corresponding author: jotajj@usp.br | 
ttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5914-2087
Received 30 September 2025
Accepted 09 March 2026
HOW TO CITE
Túllume-Vergara PO, de Lima ACS, Gomes CMC, Lima BS, Brandão-Filho SP, Silveira FT, et al. Chromosome level genome assembly of the World Health standards Leishmania (Viannia) guyanensis M4147 and L. (V.) shawi M8408 using a hybrid sequencing approach. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2026; 121: e250270.
HANDLING EDITOR
Elisa Cupolillo | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0620-3250
