VIT homologues are also present in other human pathogens of the Apicomplexa phylum, such as Toxoplasma and Cryptosporidium. Furthermore, kinetoplastid parasites Trypanosoma and Leishmania, causing sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis, respectively, also encode homologues of VIT proteins (Fig. 1a). Here, VIT is linked to leishmaniasis.