( According to new research from The Univ...)Evolution of HIV from African Greek Monkeys,Health

According to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson,monkey viruses related to HIV may have swept across Africa more recently than previously thought .

A new family tree for African green monkeys shows that an HIV-like virus, simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, first infected those monkeys after the lineage split into four species. The new research reveals the split happened about 3 million years ago.

Previously, scientists thought SIV infected an ancestor of green monkeys before the lineage split, much longer ago.

"Studying SIV helps us learn more about HIV," said the paper's first author Joel Wertheim, a doctoral candidate in the UA department of ecology and evolutionary biology. "This finding sheds light on the future direction of HIV evolution."

All SIVs and HIVs have a common ancestor, added senior author Michael Worobey, a UA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

The new work suggests African green monkeys' SIVs, or SIVagm, may have lost their virulence more recently than the millions of years previously thought. Green monkeys almost never get sick from SIVagm. If SIVagm was once a monkey killer, the change in its virulence may shed light on the future course and timing of the evolution of HIV.

The new research also challenges the idea that one ancient SIV was transmitted vertically, down through time, and evolved into many SIVs as its original host diverged into many different species.

Wertheim and Worobey suggest various SIVs arose because SIVs were transmitted horizontally, between primate species, and evolved into a new host-specific form only after transmission.

HIV arose from chimpanzee SIV that was transmitted to humans, probably when people had contact with chimpanzee blood from hunting and butchering the animals, Worobey said.

The team's research article, "A Challenge to the Ancient Origin of SIVagm Bas
'"/>




Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. Sex Played A Vital Role For Evolution Of Infectious Diseases
2. Evolution influenced by Temperature change
3. Scientists Explain Complex Darwinian Evolution
4. The Deadly Evolution of SIV to HIV
5. A Human Brain Gene Could Hold Clues On The Evolution Of Brain Capacity
6. Understanding the Evolution of Viruses a little more Clearly
7. Evolution of Plant Life Cycle
8. The Evolution of Costly Traits
9. Myelin Associated With Early Evolution of Huntingtons Disease
10. Protein Folds Research Offers Insight into Metabolic Evolution
11. Completely Neutral Evolutionary Changes Helped Shape Our Genome