Jessica Hamzelou, reporter
African lions living over a million years ago may have carried an early form of HIV. Now, American microbiologists reckon they've found a feline genetic "pawprint" in the modern-day form of the virus.
and his team at the University of Rochester in New York found a genetic sequence in the HIV genome that they think descended from an ancient gene
The group reckon that, because the feline version of HIV - FIV
- is an old virus, the newly discovered sequence might have been taken up by FIV from host lions or tigers over a million years ago.
The idea that the virus started in cats is not a new one. In 1998, virologist Jaap Goudsmit argued that ancient cats could have transmitted the virus to monkeys by licking or biting them
Goudsmit pointed out that members of the cat family have shared their
habitat with monkeys both in the East African wild and in Egyptian
captivity, where monkeys were kept by the males of the household while
women kept cats, both being signs of fertility.
Bambara and his team agree that it's likely the virus was passed from ancient
felines to monkeys, before being passed onto humans.
Matthew Portnoy of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences told HealthDay
that the research could have ramifications for understanding the swine
virus, which has also picked up genetic information from hosts of