Herpes simplex virus has moved to ancient man from the apes

    




Scientists from the University of California found that the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) moved to the ancient man from the apes about 6 million years ago. While the genital form of the virus, HSV-2 "jumped" from monkeys to ancient human ancestor around 1.6 million years ago.

It is believed that two-thirds of the Earth's population is infected with at least one form of virus which manifests on the lips or on the genitals. Dr. Wertheim said, "human beings are the only primates that have two HSV. We wanted to find out why?" The researchers compared the gene sequences of HSV-1 and HSV-2 in the pedigree of simplex viruses eight monkeys. This allowed the experts to determine when HSV-1 and HSV-2 is passed to people with far greater precision than was shown by the previous models that were not natural selection during virus evolution. The scientists found that HSV-1 is present in humans far longer than HSV-2, prompting the researchers to further explore the origin of HSV-2 in humans





Virus lineage showed that HSV-2 was far more genetically similar to the herpes virus found in chimpanzees. This level of divergence indicates that people have acquired HSV-2 from an ancestor of modern chimpanzees about 1.6 million years ago, before the emergence of modern man appeared about 200,000 years ago. Dr. Wertheim said: "the Results will help us better understand how these viruses evolved and found their place in the human body. Understanding where our viruses come, will help us in preventing future viruses".



Source: nauka24news.ru/