Posted on 07/05/2010 5:25:21 PM PDT by decimon
Research reveals potential reservoir species, new mechanism for how mammals acquire genes
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans.
Published this week in the online journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, the paper ("Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes") demonstrates for the first time that mammals have harbored filoviruses for at least tens of millions of years, in contrast to the existing estimate of a few thousand.
It suggests that these species, which maintain a filovirus infection without negative health consequences, could have selectively maintained these so-called "fossil" genes as a genetic defense.
The work has important implications for the development of potential human vaccines, as well as for the modeling of disease outbreaks and the discovery of emerging diseases, including new filoviruses.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalo.edu ...
First in, last out ping.
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Thanks decimon!Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans... demonstrates for the first time that mammals have harbored filoviruses for at least tens of millions of years, in contrast to the existing estimate of a few thousand. It suggests that these species, which maintain a filovirus infection without negative health consequences, could have selectively maintained these so-called "fossil" genes as a genetic defense.Gosh, it's been ages since:To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.The Scars of Evolution:"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'" |
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OK, no more sex with wallabies, even though I always got a kick out of it. Having sex with bats always seemed, well, a little...
...batty?
They’ve got that pouch, seems to me they’re just askin’ for it.
About 8 % of the human genome is fossils of viruses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogenous_retrovirus
:-))
Why would lack of the “baboon marker” mean that man did not evolve in Africa? Couldn’t it also mean that we and baboons split from our common ancestor before the baboon marker existed, and could have occurred in Africa?
The idea there is, the split happened a while back, but the baboon virus arose much later. If our ancestors had been in contact with the baboon at the time the virus hit (and the same range is assigned to both the proto-baboon and all of them there Homos) then the viral marker would have made it through human DNA to the present. But it hasn’t. :’) Ergo, no African origin for our ancestors, and the Homo fossils are extinct lines. Since there are hardly any monkey ancestors in the fossil record, it’s not out of the question that the “Homo” fossils are really ancestral to the modern primates, rather than to us. (’:
Oh, and I should point out that Elaine Morgan regards the lack of the baboon viral marker in our chromosomes as supportive of her “aquatic ape” scenario, since she sez the ancestors of humans were isolated from other primates and whatall, east of the Great Rift.
She called me an aquatic what???
The Jonas Strain
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