[ad_1]
For more than 50 years, RNA has remained hidden in a lymph node extracted from a 38-year-old man extracted from the current Democratic Republic of Congo. This piece of tissue, the size of a nail on a pink finger, had been sealed in a protective paraffin block.
Once released from their wax wrap, scientists from the University of Arizona were able to extract from the tissue an almost complete genetic sequence of an HIV virus – the oldest almost complete genetic code of the HIV-1 virus recovered to date, and one that confirms the theory that the virus that causes AIDS has begun to spread among the population during the first decade or two years of the 20th century.
…
"Generating a complete genome … from an archived tissue sample is technically impressive," [evolution and infectious disease professor Oliver] Pybus told STAT. "Although its discovery does not substantially alter our current genetic history model of the AIDS pandemic, it reinforces our confidence in earlier conclusions drawn from modern and partial HIV gene sequences."
Read the full original message: The genetic code of HIV, extracted from a cluster of tissues, adds to the evidence of the emergence of the virus in humans a century ago
Source link
