WCS 3-Sentence Science

Herpesviruses Jumping Primate Hosts

January 16, 2020

CREDIT: JULIE LARSEN MAHER/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by the WCS Congo Program on the movement gorilla cytomegalovirus (CMV) from gorillas to chimps and bonobos 800,000 years ago:

1. Herpesviruses are thought to have evolved in very close association with their hosts, particularly for cytomegaloviruses (CMVs; genus Cytomegalovirus) which infects primates.
2. Researchers screened all 9 African great ape species/subspecies, using 675 fecal samples collected from wild animals to see if chimpanzees and gorillas might have mutually exchanged CMVs in the past.
3. The model best supported by the data involved the transmission of a gorilla CMV to the panine (chimpanzee and bonobo) lineage more than 800,000 years ago, adding to a growing body of evidence suggesting that viruses with a double-stranded DNA genome often jumped between hominine lineages over the last few million years.

Study and Journal: “Cytomegalovirus distribution and evolution in hominines” from Virus Evolution
WCS Co-Author(s): Deo Kujirakwinja, WCS Congo Program; Gullain Mitamba, WCS Congo Program; Emmanuel Muhindo, WCS Congo Program

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.