The Chimp Genome Reveals A Retroviral Invasion In Primate EvolutionSearching the genomes of a subset of apes and monkeys revealed that the retrovirus had integrated into the germline of African great apes and Old World monkeys -- but did not infect humans and Asian apes (orangutan, siamang, and gibbon). This undermines the notion that an ancient infection invaded an ancestral primate lineage, since great apes (including humans) share a common ancestor with Old World monkeys... Eichler and colleagues estimate that gorillas and chimps were infected about 3-4 million years ago, and baboon and macaque about 1.5 million years ago. The disconnect between the evolutionary history of the retrovirus and the primates, the authors conclude, could be explained if the Old World monkeys were infected by "several diverged viruses" while gorilla and chimpanzee were infected by a single, though unknown, source... As for how this retroviral infection bypassed orangutans and humans, the authors offer a number of possible scenarios but dismiss geographic isolation: even though Asian and African apes were mostly isolated during the Miocene era (spanning 24 to 5 million years ago), humans and African apes did overlap.
adapted from Public Library Of Science materials
ScienceDaily
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Genome Evolution | First, a Bang Then, a Shuffle
The Scientist | 1/27/2003 | Ricki Lewis
Posted on 01/31/2003 7:19:03 PM EST by jennyp
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/833653/posts
“says Evan Eichler, director of the bioinformatics core facility at the Center for Computational Genomics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.”
Infectious Evolution: Ancient Virus Hit Apes, Not Our Ancestors, In The Genes
Science News | 3-5-2005 (issue) | Bruce Bower
Posted on 04/02/2005 2:48:39 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1376168/posts
Chimp genome sequence very different from man
(Sequencing shows we are not 98% identical)
Answers in Genesis | September 6, 2005 | David A. DeWitt, Ph.D.
Posted on 09/06/2005 9:49:09 AM EDT by DaveLoneRanger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1478385/posts
Time Aping over Human-Chimp Genetic Similarities
Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center | Casey Luskin
Posted on 10/11/2006 5:45:52 PM EDT by Tim Long
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1717726/posts
Evan E. Eichler, Ph.D.
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/eichler_bio.html