**1. Introduction**

Leishmaniases are vector-borne infections caused by protozoa of genus *Leishmania*, affecting various mammals, mainly carnivores and humans. Clinical patent disease is relatively easy to be diagnosed and laboratory-confirmed by direct detection of the parasite in clinical samples. However, in subclinical cases detection of the causative agent is possible by highly sensitive diagnostic techniques such as molecular assays. Different molecular methods have been developed and evaluated including multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, conventional poly‐ merase chain reaction (PCR) based assays, quantitative Real Time PCR as well as simplified PCR methods.

More than 30 *Leishmania* species have been recognized, of which 20 are considered infective for humans and animals. The ability to distinguish between *Leishmania* species is crucial for differentiation of various forms of disease (visceral, cutaneous, mucocutaneus) at least in humans in order to establish correct diagnosis and prognosis of the disease as well as to support decision-making regarding application of the appropriate treatment protocols.

Available tools for species identification and phylogenetic analysis include DNA sequencing analysis, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, and PCR-fingerprinting techniques as well as novel methods such as multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multi‐ locus microsatellite typing (MLMT). MLST is regarded as the most powerful phylogenetic approach and will be a better alternative to Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE) in the future. Various studies showed that the same target genomic regions can be used to compare distances among species but also to evaluate genetic diversity within species.

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This review aims to critically present current molecular approaches for leishmaniasis diagno‐ sis, species identification and phylogenetic analysis.
