Viral Evolutionary Biology And Virology: The Origins Of Viruses

Some evolutionary biologists believe that since viruses are not alive, they are unimportant when considering evolution; this view places viruses in a category of merely secondary influencers of evolution. However, genetic information is directly exchanged with living organisms within the web of life. Also, virus genomes can permanently colonize their hosts, leading researchers to conclude that the cell nucleus itself originates from viruses. Prokaryotic cells did not merely gradually adapt until they formed a nucleus and became eukaryotic cells. Instead, the nucleus could have come from a persistent, large DNA virus that, within prokaryotes, made a permanent home. In conclusion, although viruses may not be technically defined as alive, they provide a link and form the boundary between biochemistry and biology, and are an integral component within the study of life.

After the spread of AIDS to Africa, it began to spread to America in 1979 when African migrated to America they began to spread this with the people (Chelala97).The earliest form of AIDS was when an patient fifteen years olds was reported to have this disease. He never traveled outside the country so it was a possibility that it was transmitted to him in 1980.After this patient died it was reported that homosexual men started dying of this disease that was unidentified.

The term Human Immunodeficiency Virus is commonly known as (HIV), which is a virus that attacks the immune system of humans by destroying the amount of CD4 cells in their bodies. Without CD4 the human body is unable to fight against diseases, which can lead to Acquired Immune deficiency syndrome known as AIDS for short. The first case of the HIV/AIDS virus in the U.S. occurred in the early 1980’s. The first spark of the virus was found in San Francisco with couple of homosexual Caucasian American males. Today African Americans account for the largest proportion of HIV and AIDS in this country, represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population, but accounted for an estimated 44% of new HIV infections in 2010(the last year a study was

This history of HIV/AIDS as a blurry timeline before the 1980’s since that was around the time reports came in which eventually become an HIV report. The origin of HIV can be traced back to the early part of the century. Some believe that in the 1920’s chimpanzees from the Congo came into contact with humans (Avert, 2016). Though reports were not identified as HIV until the 1980’s, the belief that HIV was already scattered throughout four other continents may have been incident (Avert, 2016). Even though for the past 30 years the world has been diligently working to find a cure and pushing prevention, we are still struggling each year with increasing diagnosis. The beginning of HIV did end with lots of death, but now with our improved antiviral medication there is hope for many.

The mutation of existing viruses, the spread of existing viruses from one host species to another, and the dissemination of a viral disease from a small, isolated population that can lead to widespread epidemics.

AIDS was detected in the United States was in 1981, when groups of men in New York and

The first thought to be patient zero was Gaëtan Dugas, but the disease turned out reach further back than that. HIV mutates at a predictable rate so scientists were able to track it back to around 1908 when they think a spillover event involving SIV occurred. This strain of SIV dates back less than 1 million years ago and is thought to have originated from a chimp. This chimp probably ingested ate monkeys that had two different SIV virus that somehow created a mosaic virus. From here, the cut hunter theory comes in that explains that blood to blood transfer probly occurred between the hunter and a SIV positive chimp. When this occurred, a spillover took place that would eventually lead to what we know as the HIV/AIDS

According to a report published in the February 1998 edition of “Nature”, scientists identified what they believe is the earliest case of AIDs in a man from the Congo in 1959. (Lerner and Hombs 39) By the end of the year 1980, 80 men would have been diagnosed with at least of the opportunistic infections that are a characteristic of AIDs. (Lerner and Hombs 40) AIDs cases in the 1980s increased dramatically not only around the world but in the United States, primarily in larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The numbers of AIDs diagnoses and deaths spiraled out of control throughout the 1980s and towards the end of 1989 there were 117,500 cases of AIDS reported and 89,000 related deaths.(Lerner and Hombs 54) In the

In the 1980s, a mysterious disease began to take the lives of Americans. With the cause unknown, a fear grew among Americans. An unusually high rate of people was becoming sick with strange and rare diseases. When experimental treatments failed to work, people died. This mysterious disease is what we now know as HIV–Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the past thirty-five years, the HIV has taken many turns in history. Although we do not hear about HIV and AIDS now, it is still a prevalent issue in the United States and in the world.

In the 1920's, HIV crossed from chimps to humans. There is evidence on how, when and where HIV first began to cause illness in humans. HIV is a type of lentivirus, which means it attacks the immune system. In a similar way, the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) attacks the immune systems of monkeys and apes. There is even a theory on hunters, in the Democratic Republic of Congo eating monkey and transfer the virus. These well-known diseases, travel from Africa, Kinshasa to the United States. Started off being called GRID also known as gay-related immune deficiency introduced to united state in 1981. This disease has taken 121 healthy gay man lives in the U.S. since the mid-1970s. Scientists began to notice clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and

The influenza virus thrives because of its unique characteristics that allow it frequently change and undergo evolution. The influenza virus has a segmented genome meaning that each section of RNA is copied separately allowing reassortment to play a major role in the evolution of the influenza virus. When two different strands of the virus attack the same cell, both strands of RNA are copied in the nucleus. These copies then move to the cytoplasm where new viruses are compiled. Each new virus needs all eight of its genomes which can come from a copy of either of the original infecting viruses. The new virus would then have a mixture of RNA from each originating virus causing it to be different from both (Rahnama, L, et al., 2013). Reassortment causes new strains of viruses

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

Even viruses have a evolutionary history. After experiencing a plethora of mutations and sky-high rates of replication, the havoc wreaking virus known as Ebola, began to rapidly evolve. With Ebola’s mutation rates increasing exponentially, it creates countless genetic variations. These genetic variations allow evolutionary processes to spawn and flourish in the ideal environment being provided. Currently, this remarkable virus’s evolution has greatly increased in speed when compared to their past evolutions. Thus, adaptation would have been forced to repetitively occur until Ebola was almost flawlessly fitted to its current host, resulting in random mutations becoming quite rare. These adaptations paved the way to allow many variants to be

This little package of mayhem consists of relatively few parts. A virus is simply a protein capsule called a capsid, sometimes surrounded by an envelope, containing a genome. The genome consists of nucleic acids arranged as DNA or less commonly, RNA. Dozens of variants of this fundamental arrangement exist with differences in the structure of the capsule and the arrangement of the genome. Small differences or changes in these components allow some viruses to continue to outmaneuver researchers, while millions of dollars are spent trying to understand and eliminate them.

One common theory about the origin of AIDS is that the virus originated in Africa. They believe that AIDS was transferred to humans by route of either eating infected chimpanzees or their blood infecting a human through an open wound or sore. After the first human was infected, the infection soon spread as Brandon Keim wrote in “Early Spread of AIDS Traced to Congo’s Expanding Transportation Network”. “The number of infections soon tripled, and the virus’s range expanded.” It is said that HIV was transported to a Kinshasa by an infected individual by way of river down into the Congo. In that time, many of the people in the area were men and there was a vast sexual network in the city. Being so promiscuous led to the rapid spread. This is when they think the first outbreak of AIDS had begun. Within years it devastated parts of Africa, partially because they had no healthcare. They wouldn’t have had any way of knowing how to stop or treat the epidemic. Around the time of the greatest outbreak in Africa, doctors were noticing AIDS in the U.S. They believe that the virus was spread to the U.S. by air travel. This idea seems plausible because of the global trade economy of the U.S. With as many imports and exports as our nation has made in our history, it seems to be a possible explanation.