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Background   Leishmania  parasites undergo profound morphological and biochemical changes while passing through their life cycle. Protein kinases have been shown to be involved in the differentiation from the extracellular flagellated promastigotes to the intracellular "non-flagellated" amastigotes and vice versa. Moreover, these enzymes are likely involved in the regulation of the proliferation of the different life stages.    Results  Here, we characterize LmxMPK4, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologue from  Leishmania mexicana . The kinase reveals all sequence motifs for classification as a MAP kinase. LmxMPK4 proved to be active as a recombinant protein. The kinase is expressed in promastigotes and amastigotes. It was impossible to generate homozygous gene deletion mutants for  LmxMPK4  in promastigotes. Moreover, amastigotes bearing only an episomal copy of the gene stably retained  LmxMPK4  over a prolonged period without antibiotic pressure in infected mice.    Conclusion  LmxMPK4 is essential for promastigotes and amastigotes of  Leishmania . It shows significant amino acid sequence divergence to mammalian MAP kinases. Thus, LmxMPK4 is a promising new drug target.

LmxMPK4, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase homologue essential for promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania mexicana