Genomic fossils in lemurs shed light on origin and evolution of HIV and other primate lentiviruses
Friday, March 20, 2009 - 09:15
in Biology & Nature
A retrovirus related to HIV became stably integrated into the genome of several lemurs around 4.2 million years ago, according to research led by Dr. Cédric Feschotte at the University of Texas, Arlington. Published March 20 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, the analysis of prosimian immunodeficiency virus (pSIV) offers new insights into the evolution of lentiviruses.