The annual average temperature and relative humidity are 14.7°C and 51%, and precipitation is about 52 mm in this county. Figure 1 The study area (Beiza District) is located in the Fars Province, south of Iran. Sand Fly Collection and Species Identification Sand flies were collected from 10 villages using sticky papers. Collection of sand

flies was carried out twice a month from April to October 2010. Sixty sticky papers were installed per night at each sampling station. The male sand flies were stored in ethanol (70%) for subsequent mounting Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and species identification. The females were selected for dissection and DNA extraction. The head and last abdominal segments were mounted on a microscope slide, in a drop of Puri NSC683864 molecular weight medium,20 so that each sample could be identified in species level, according Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to the keys given by Lewis, 1982.21 The remaining portion of each parous female of the more common Phlebotomus species with no sign of recent blood meal was used for DNA extraction and PCR. DNA Extraction Total DNA was extracted from each sand fly body, as was described elsewhere.22 Briefly, a heat-sealed Pasteur pipette was used to homogenize each body with 200µl of lysis buffer (50 µl Tris-HCl [pH 7.6], 1µl EDTA, and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 1% Tween 20) and 12µl of a proteinase K solution (containing 19 µl of the enzyme/ml), in a 1.5-ml microcentrifuge

tube. The homogenate Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was then incubated at 37°C overnight before 300 µl of a phenol: chloroform: isoamyl alcohol mixture (25:24:1, by vol.) were added. After being shaken vigorously, the tube holding the mixture was centrifuged (10,000 xg for 10 min). Thereafter, the DNA in the supernatant solution was precipitated with 400 µl of cold, pure ethanol, resuspended in 50 µl of double-distilled water (DDW), and stored at -20°C until use. Amplification

of Kinetoplastic Minicircle DNA from Sand Flies The nested PCR assay was employed to amplify the kDNA of the Leishmania parasites. The assay was carried out in two rounds using the primers of CSB1XR (ATT TTT CGC Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews GAT TTT CGC AGA ACG) and CSB2XF (CGA GTA GCA GAA ACT CCC GTT CA) for the first round and LiR (TCG CAG AAC GCC CCT) and 13Z (ACT GGG GGT TGG TGT AAA ATAG) for the second round.19,23,24 First, a total reaction mixture (25 µl) was prepared, which contained 5 µl of template DNA, 200 µl of each deoxynucleoside triphosphate (Cinagen, Tehran, Iran), 1.5 µl of MgCl2, 1.0 U of Taq polymerase, 50 µl of Tris-HCl (pH 7.6), 10 µl of CSB1XR, and 10 mM of CSB2XF. PCR reaction was set at 94°C for 5 min, followed by 30 cycles, 30 s at 94°C, 1 min at 55°C, and 1.5 min at 72°C, and then a final extension for 7 min at 72°C in a thermocycler (Eppendorf AG; Humbug, Germany). One µl of the first-round products’ dilution (1/9, by vol.) was used as the templates for the second round of PCR.