In article <46076j$fci at ixnews7.ix.netcom.com>, coldewey at ix.netcom.com
(Michael Coldewey ) wrote:
> If you are just looking for popular info, try reading one of the
> "HotZone" type books, out in the last year. Ebola is considered a
> relative of Marberg and only has a recent history that I'm aware of. I
> read about it's origin in Africa (around the river for which it's
> named) along the "AIDS highway"; that area seems to be good for
> spawning deadly lifeforms - perhaps they are all mutations of the same,
> benign,less deadly viral source........
If you mean that Ebola could have a common ancestor with HIV I think it's
not likely due to the fundamental differences between the two viruses. I
do not know an exact figure of the nucleotide similarity between the two
genomes, but I guess it's too low to support such an hypothesis. Maybe
some molecular virologist can give you better informations.
maga at vetbio.unizh.ch
