pseuouridine in ribosomes. in this case, an increase in these modifications was observed in the large subunits of the ribosomes of individuals in culture, specifically in the ptc (peptidyl transferase center) and in the mrna entry tunnel to the ribosome for protein synthesis. these changes lead to an increase in ribosomal biogenesis, resulting in increased protein synthesis and growth rate. in conclusion, the loss of the kinase is compensated by the genomic instability of leishmania donovani by increasing the expression of another orthologous kinase, decreasing flagellar biogenesis and increasing ribosomal biogenesis. these compensations result in the growth rate of the culture being as less affected as possible by the initial loss of the kinase, and the parasite is perfectly adapted to the in vitro culture, which is not its natural habitat. sexual reproduction a microbial pathogen's reproductive system is one of the basic biologic processes that condition the microorganism's ecology and disease spread. in 2009 akopyants et al. demonstrated that l. major has a sexual cycle, including a meiotic process. hybrid progeny are formed that have full genomic complements from both parents. mating only occurs in the sand fly vector, and hybrids can be transmitted to the mammalian host by sand fly bite. in l. braziliensis matings in nature are predominantly between related individuals resulting in extreme inbreeding. the rate of outcrossing between different strains of leishmania in the sand fly vector depends on the frequency of co-infection. such outcrossing events appear to be rare in l. major and l. donovani. l. infantum produces proteins brca1 and rad51 that interact with each other to promote homologous recombinational repair. these proteins play a key role in meiosis. thus, meiotic events provide the adaptive advantage of efficient recombinational repair of dna damages even when they do not lead to outcrossing