Leishmania aethiopica lines used in this work.

LRV status was determined by a dot blot assay (dsRNA detection) for the eight fresh isolates, and by PCR using universal LRV-specific primers on cDNA obtained from the three cryobank lines (see Methods). dsRNA was weakly detected in the Lae 315 strain (+). The four isolates selected for further analysis are highlighted in bold, as well as the L494 strain that was used for LRV sequencing. Parasites were isolated from patients suffering from cutaneous (CL) or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) as indicated in the “pathology” column.