Improvement of the green fluorescent protein reporter system in Leishmania spp. for the in vitro and in vivo screening of antileishmanial drugs

► We improved a useful approach for evaluation of antileishmanial drugs. ► We examined the stable expression of GFP in Leishmania species. ► Integration of the GFP into 18S rRNA locus allows homogeneous expression. ► In vitro infection rates of transfected and wild type parasites are similar. ► We examined the ability of transfected and wild type parasites to infect hamsters.