The role of aneuploidy and polyclonality in the adaptation of the Protozoan parasite Leishmania to high drug pressure

Aneuploidy is generally considered harmful, but in some microorganisms, it can act as an adaptive mechanism against environmental stresses. Here, we used Leishmania – a protozoan parasite with a remarkable genome plasticity – to study the early evolution of aneuploidy under high drug pressure (antimony or miltefosine) as stressor model. By combining single-cell genomics, lineage tracing with cellular barcodes and longitudinal genome characterization, we revealed that antimony-induced aneuploidy changes result from the polyclonal selection of pre-existing karyotypes, complemented by further and rapid de novo alterations in chromosome copy number along evolution. In the case of miltefosine, early parasite adaptation was associated with independent pre-existing point mutations in a miltefosine transporter gene and aneuploidy changes only emerged later, upon exposure to increased concentration of the drug. Thus, polyclonality and genome plasticity are hallmarks of parasite adaptation, but the scenario of aneuploidy dynamics is dependent on the nature and strength of the environmental stress as well as on the existence of other pre-adaptive mechanisms.