Neighbour-joining tree inferred from the Dps distances calculated for 55 <i>L. major</i> strains isolated from different rodents (40 Tunisian and 15 from other geographic origins) according to the 10 microsatellites analyzed.

<p>Strains isolated among <i>P. obesus</i> (P), <i>M. shawi</i> (M), <i>Tatera sp.</i> (T) and <i>R. opimus</i> (R) were classified into 10 genotypes Lmj01, Lmj02, Lmj14, Lmj15, Lmj17, Lmj21, Lmj37, Lmj39, Lmj65 (as described in<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107043#pone.0107043-AlJawabreh1" target="_blank">[21]</a>) and RdTN from Africa (AF), Middle East (ME) and Central Asia (CA). RdTN indicates the genotype obtained from Tunisian reservoirs. Results are shown as radial tree where the percentages (under 80%) with which a branch is supported in 1000 bootstrap replications are indicated.</p

Descriptive statistics revealing genetic characteristics and variation of the ten microsatellite loci detected in the population of 55 <i>L. major</i> strains isolated from Tunisian rodents and worldwide.

<p>N, number of genotypes; NA, number of allele per locus; Ho, observed heterozygosity; He, expected heterozygosity; Fis, inbreeding coefficient.</p><p>Descriptive statistics revealing genetic characteristics and variation of the ten microsatellite loci detected in the population of 55 <i>L. major</i> strains isolated from Tunisian rodents and worldwide.</p

Theoretical sizes and repetition numbers among the ten-microsatellite loci in Tunisian studied isolates.

<p>*: New allele not previously described.</p><p>Theoretical sizes and repetition numbers among the ten-microsatellite loci in Tunisian studied isolates.</p

Geographical distribution of strains isolated from the Central Tunisia study area.

<p>Panel A shows the square delimited study area in the Governorate of Sidi Bouzid (in gray). Panel B represents the land satellite image of the study area showing the distribution of animal reservoir hosts from which the <i>L. major</i> strains were isolated. Isolates from <i>P. obesus</i> origin were noted P and colored in green, from <i>M. shawi</i> origin were noted Mer and colored in yellow, and from <i>M. nivalis</i> was noted M and colored in red. Spatial data related to the reservoir hosts of these strains were collected using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Satellite imagery: ArcGIS software.</p

Biological processes deduced from analysis of deregulated miRNA-targets in <i>L. major</i>-infected human macrophages at 3 h post-infection.

<p>Yellow color gradient intensity correlates with up- or down-regulation levels. White nodes are not significantly overrepresented. The area of each node is proportional to the number of genes in the set annotated to the corresponding GO category. Interactions were visualized as a network using Cytoscape and BINGO plugin.</p

Negative correlation between expressions of an up-regulated set of miRNAs and their targeted chemokine transcripts.

<p>Expression means of let-7a, miR-25, miR-26a, miR-140, miR-146a and miR-155 at 3 h and miR-23b and miR-132 at 6 h post-infection of three healthy donors (D1, D2 and D3; panel A) is negatively correlated with CCL2, CCL5, CXCL10, CXCL11 and CXCL12 mRNA mean levels at 12 and 24 h post-infection (panel B) in <i>L. major</i>-infected human macrophages. Results were expressed using the 2^−ΔΔCt method.</p

Time course of miRNA-210 and procaspase-3 expression levels in <i>L. major</i> infected human primary macrophages.

<p>MiR-210 expression at 3, 6, 12, and 24 h in infected cells relatively to non-infected cells (panel A), after siRNA-control or HIF-1α-silencing transfections in non-infected and infected cells (panel B). Results were expressed using the 2^−ΔΔCt method. Stars (*) are indicated when results are statistically significant from control. One star indicates a <i>p</i> value <0.05; two stars indicate a <i>p</i> value <0.01 and three stars indicate a <i>p</i> value <0.001. Panel C represents abundance of pro-caspase-3 protein levels in time course parasite-infected macrophages of healthy donors revealed by western blot analysis. HSP27 was used as loading control. Ten µg of <i>L. major</i> lysate (latest lane) was used a negative control to ensure that anti-procaspase-3 antibody does not cross-react with parasite proteins. Data are representative of three independent experiments conducted on MDM derived from two to three different healthy donors. NI indicates non-infected cells and IF indicates infected cells.</p