Novel Insights into Genome Plasticity in Eukaryotes: Mosaic Aneuploidy in Leishmania

Leishmania are unicellular eukaryotes that have many markedly original molecular features compared with other uni- or multicellular eukaryotes like yeasts or mammals. Genome plasticity in this parasite has been the subject of many publications, and has been associated with drug resistance or adaptability. Aneuploidy has been suspected by several authors and it is now confirmed using state-of-the-art technologies such as high-throughput DNA sequencing. The analysis of genome contents at the single cell level using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has brought a new light on the genome organization: within a cell population, every chromosome, in every cell, may be present in at least two ploidy states (being either monosomic, disomic or trisomic), and the chromosomal content varies greatly from cell to cell, thus generating a constitutive intra-strain genomic heterogeneity, here termed 'mosaic aneuploidy'. Mosaic aneuploidy deeply affects the genetics of these organisms, leading, for example, to an extreme degree of intra-strain genomic diversity, as well as to a clearance of heterozygous cells in the population without however affecting genetic heterogeneity. Second, mosaic aneuploidy might be considered as a powerful strategy evolved by the parasite for adapting to modifications of environment conditions as well as for the emergence of drug resistance. On the whole, mosaic aneuploidy may be considered as a novel mechanism for generating phenotypic diversity driven by genomic plasticity.