WIKIMEDIA, HERBERTTA report published today (August 27) in PLOS Biology tells the surprising story of reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) evolution and how, in the 1930s, unwitting malaria researchers were most likely responsible for transmitting REV from mammals to birds. The report highlights the importance of modern-day virus monitoring to limit potentially adverse transmission effects.
“It’s a very interesting story. That malarial research could have led to zoonosis from mammal to bird is pretty surprising,” said Eric Delwart, a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the research. “It’s basically an example of a contamination that went rogue . . . and extraordinary bad luck.”
Retroviruses integrate into genomic DNA of host cells to borrow the cells’ transcription machinery and replicate. On occasion, such integration events happen in germline cells—such as sperm and eggs—and can thus be passed on to offspring, forever changing the host genome. Scientists like Robert Gifford, a professor at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City, examine these integrated viral sequences—or viral fossils—in animals’ ...
