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Background  Visceral leishmaniasis caused by members of the  Leishmania donovani  complex is often fatal in the absence of treatment. Research has been hampered by the lack of good laboratory models and tools for genetic manipulation. In this study, we have characterised a  L. infantum  line (JPCM5) that was isolated from a naturally infected dog and then cloned. We found that JPCM5 has attributes that make it an excellent laboratory model; different stages of the parasite life cycle can be studied  in vitro , it is accessible to genetic manipulation and it has retained its virulence. Furthermore, the  L. infantum  JPCM5 genome has now been fully sequenced.    Results  We have further focused our studies on  LiCPA , the  L. infantum  homologue to  L. mexicana  cysteine peptidase CPA. LiCPA was found to share a high percentage of amino acid identity with CPA proteins of other  Leishmania  species. Two independent  LiCPA -deficient promastigote clones (Δ Licpa ) were generated and their phenotype characterised. In contrast to  L. mexicana CPA -deficient mutants, both clones of Δ Licpa  were found to have significantly reduced virulence  in vitro  and  in vivo . Re-expression of just one  LiCPA  allele (giving Δ Licpa ::CPA) was sufficient to complement the reduced infectivity of both Δ Licpa  mutants for human macrophages, which confirms the importance of LiCPA for  L. infantum  virulence. In contrast,  in vivo  experiments did not show any virulence recovery of the re-expressor clone Δ Licpa C1::CPA compared with the CPA-deficient mutant Δ Licpa C1.    Conclusion  The data suggest that CPA is not essential for replication of  L. infantum  promastigotes, but is important for the host-parasite interaction. Further studies will be necessary to elucidate the precise roles that LiCPA plays and why the re-expression of LiCPA in the Δ Licpa  mutants complemented the gene deletion phenotype only in  in vitro  and not in  in vivo  infection of hamsters.

Studies on the CPA cysteine peptidase in the Leishmania infantum genome strain JPCM5