Random Lab Tidbits

Question 1

Hunter Hypothesis

Answer 1

humans came in contact with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus by eating/butchering chimps

Question 2

Requirements for zoonotic transmission

Answer 2

• same geographic location
• similar genome
• virus is prevalent in wild host
• reasonable transmission

Question 3

How do we assess whether HIV was passed from chimps to humans by zoonotic transmission?

Answer 3

• Need to show that SIV is present in wild chimps (biologists collected stool samples and developed methods to amplify host mitochondrial and genomic markers)
• need to show that SIV is related to HIV

Question 4

Study established chimpanzees as….

Answer 4

natural reservoirs of HIV-1. Chimps in southeastern and south central Cameroon are the sources of HIV-1 M and N respectively.

Question 5

What do phylogenies of HIV SIV ancestry tell us?

Answer 5

that HIV M and N are less closely related to each other than to SIV ancestor (river separates the areas -> allopatric speciation)