http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:00:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4880 Joe Marfice Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:02:39 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4880 Typo: "Sloths belong to Xenarthra,", not "Xenartha". Typo: “Sloths belong to Xenarthra,”, not “Xenartha”.

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4879 Dormant viruses can hide in our DNA and be passed from parent to child | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:33:14 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4879 [...] The viruses that have been infecting mammals for 105 million years [...] [...] The viruses that have been infecting mammals for 105 million years [...]

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4878 frog Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:15:25 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4878 "We have the gene for resistance to this class of viruses it's just broken(a single nucleotide knockout" in humans. Chalk another victory up to intelligent design" We have a broken gene for resistance to this class? Something's missing in that sentence. Either we have some sophisticated gain-of-function, or the SFV in our line is particularly brittle and a loss-of-function somewhere disrupted SFV's ability to infiltrate us. The latter would be unlikely for a virus so apparently closely involved in our genome and speciation events for over 30 million years -- if it were brittle, one would expect it to be commonly lost among primates. A simple "loss-of-resistance" would lead to increased SFV virulence -- maybe there's a dangerous virus we get infected by, and no one has noticed that it's an SFV? “We have the gene for resistance to this class of viruses it’s just broken(a single nucleotide knockout” in humans. Chalk another victory up to intelligent design”
We have a broken gene for resistance to this class? Something’s missing in that sentence. Either we have some sophisticated gain-of-function, or the SFV in our line is particularly brittle and a loss-of-function somewhere disrupted SFV’s ability to infiltrate us. The latter would be unlikely for a virus so apparently closely involved in our genome and speciation events for over 30 million years — if it were brittle, one would expect it to be commonly lost among primates.
A simple “loss-of-resistance” would lead to increased SFV virulence — maybe there’s a dangerous virus we get infected by, and no one has noticed that it’s an SFV?

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4877 Amplexus Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:15:07 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4877 "??? How could this be? What is unique about humans over the last 2 million years that would cause us to eliminate an ancient symbiont/parasite/etc at that level? Or is SFV research missing something?" We have the gene for resistance to this class of viruses it's just broken(a single nucleotide knockout" in humans. Chalk another victory up to intelligent design “??? How could this be? What is unique about humans over the last 2 million years that would cause us to eliminate an ancient symbiont/parasite/etc at that level? Or is SFV research missing something?”
We have the gene for resistance to this class of viruses it’s just broken(a single nucleotide knockout” in humans. Chalk another victory up to intelligent design

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4876 frog Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:15:29 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/18/the-viruses-that-have-been-infecting-mammals-for-105-million-years/#comment-4876 Question: I see from your links that SFV are not endogenous to human beings, but they are endogenous (and co-speciated) with gorillas, chimps and our ancestors at least 30 million years back. Humans can, however, be infected by chimps! ??? How could this be? What is unique about humans over the last 2 million years that would cause us to eliminate an ancient symbiont/parasite/etc at that level? Or is SFV research missing something? Question: I see from your links that SFV are not endogenous to human beings, but they are endogenous (and co-speciated) with gorillas, chimps and our ancestors at least 30 million years back. Humans can, however, be infected by chimps!
??? How could this be? What is unique about humans over the last 2 million years that would cause us to eliminate an ancient symbiont/parasite/etc at that level? Or is SFV research missing something?

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