PHOENIX ? Early Saturday morning, Bo Dallas was just another hardworking WWE NXT competitor, fighting for a spot on WWE?s main roster. By late afternoon, he was preparing himself for the 2013 Royal Rumble Match, where he would be tangling with 29 WWE Superstars for an opportunity to challenge for a World Title on The Grandest Stage of Them All at WrestleMania 29.
How did Dallas? fortunes change so dramatically in just a few short hours? Give credit to perseverance and good fortune. The resilient kid from Brooksville, Fla., won an eight-man tournament held during the Royal Rumble Fan Fest to earn a coveted spot in WWE?s classic over-the-top-rope melee. (PHOTOS)
?This doesn?t even feel like real life,? Dallas told WWE.com only moments after his victory. ?I?m hovering above myself and watching this happen. An unreal experience, man.?
Starting out on an unseasonably rainy day in Phoenix, Dallas tested his resolve in three grueling matches over the course of four hours. In the third-generation competitor's way stood big Luke Harper, the unpredictable Conor O?Brian and the devious Leo Kruger ? three of WWE NXT?s most highly touted prospects. (MORE ON NXT?S TOP TALENT) By the time he scored the final pinfall on Kruger, it was clear that the battered Dallas had given everything he had in him to become the first WWE NXT Superstar to qualify for the Royal Rumble Match.
?To be in the history books for anything is amazing,? the dynamo admitted. ?But being the first NXT Superstar to be in the Royal Rumble Match? I don?t know if I?m allowed to say this, but that?s badass!?
Now headed into one of the most pivotal bouts of the year, Dallas no doubt realizes that this rare opportunity could turn him into a sports-entertainment phenomenon overnight. While the Royal Rumble Match has traditionally been won by established Superstars like ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin, John Cena and Shawn Michaels, the chaotic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants atmosphere of the brawl presents the perfect opportunity for a competitor like the 225-pound youngster to shock the world.
?I?m always the underdog,? he said. ?I never let that get me down. I take the punches, but if there?s one thing I believe, it?s??always get up.? And that?s how I live life.?
Dallas has already made history by becoming the first WWE NXT Superstar to grab a spot in the Royal Rumble Match, but can he do it again by becoming the first WWE NXT Superstar to headline WrestleMania? The WWE Universe will find out Sunday night when 30 Superstars battle for an opportunity at sports-entertainment's richest prize at Royal Rumble.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 1,500 for the first time in more than five years on Friday as strong earnings reports, including Procter & Gamble's, helped the benchmark extend its rally to eight days.
The winning streak is the longest in eight years and left the S&P 500 about 4.1 percent away from its all-time closing high of 1,565.15 on October 9, 2007.
The equity market's strong start this year has been attributed to solid corporate results, an agreement in Washington to extend the government's borrowing power, encouraging signs from the global economy and seasonal inflows into stocks.
Procter & Gamble shares led the Dow and S&P higher with a 4 percent gain to $73.25 after the world's top household products maker's quarterly profit soared past expectations. The company also raised its sales and earnings outlook for the fiscal year.
Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell in December but rose in 2012 to the highest level since 2009, a sign the U.S. housing market turned a corner last year.
"Economic data in the U.S. has been trending higher, albeit modestly. Things are incrementally better," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 70.65 points or 0.51 percent, to close at 13,895.98. The S&P 500 <.spx> gained 8.14 points or 0.54 percent, to 1,502.96. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 19.33 points or 0.62 percent, to end at 3,149.71.
The S&P 500 closed at its highest since December 10, 2007, and the Dow ended at its highest since October 31, 2007.
Apple shares dropped 2.4 percent to $439.88, and the iPhone maker lost its coveted title as the largest U.S. company by market capitalization to Exxon Mobil Corp .
Apple's market cap fell to $413 billion, down roughly $250 billion from its September peak. Apple's fall is about equal to the entire value of Google Inc .
"The market was able to move forward despite deterioration in Apple and that's also a positive," Prudential Financial's Krosby said.
There was heavy volume in Apple shares as it hit its session low shortly before the closing bell. The stock dropped by as much as $7, to $435 from $442, within the span of one second during the last minute of trading.
More than 50 orders were executed on NYSE Arca at $435 a share, according to Thomson Reuters time-and-sales data, in blocks as small as 100 shares and as large as 10,494 shares.
Adding to the overall bullish tone in the market, German business morale improved for a third consecutive month in January to its highest in more than six months. In addition, European banks said they will repay the European Central Bank much more than expected of the loans the bank gave them during the crisis.
"Good news in credit markets helps set the stage for (more investment in) riskier assets," Krosby said.
For the week, the Dow rose 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.5 percent. It was the fourth straight week of gains for all three indexes.
Helping to lift the Nasdaq on Friday, Starbucks rose 4.1 percent to $56.81 after the coffee retailer reported stronger-than-expected sales in the United States and Asia. {ID:nL1N0ATH04]
Netflix added 15.5 percent to $169.56, following its massive 42.2 percent jump on Thursday after the company announced a surprising jump in subscribers to its video streaming service.
Thomson Reuters data through Friday showed that of the 147 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 68 percent exceeded expectations. Since 1994, 62 percent of companies have topped expectations, while the average over the past four quarters stands at 65 percent.
Halliburton Co shares jumped 5.1 percent to $39.72 after the world's second-largest oilfield services company reported higher-than-expected earnings and sales for the fourth quarter.
About 6.4 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average during January 2012 of about 6.93 billion shares.
On the NYSE, more than three issues rose for every two that fell. On the Nasdaq, five stocks advanced for every four that declined.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's economy could grow at more than 8 percent in 2013, giving some underpinning to global economic activity that is set for a mild, tortuous recovery this year, the head of China's sovereign wealth fund said on Saturday.
"China's economic growth could be over 8 percent this year. China's economy supports a very large part of global demand," Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp. (CIC) , told a forum.
China's economy expanded an annual rate of 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, snapping seven consecutive quarters of weaker growth, as a raft of pro-growth policies kicked in.
The Q4 bounce helped lift full year growth in the world's second biggest economy to 7.8 percent which, though China's slowest pace for 13 years, generated roughly a third of global economic growth of 3.2 percent - itself the worst since the 2009 financial crisis and just barely above the 3 percent mark economists say signals a worldwide recession.
Lou said that even if China's growth did accelerate further in 2013, increased financial market volatility caused by Europe's debt crisis and concerns about the U.S. fiscal position, left the world economy set for a "mild, tortuous and slow recovery" at best.
Problems in debt-constrained countries, though, meant opportunities for cash-rich China, Lou said, adding that the government should encourage local firms to step up their efforts to expand and invest abroad.
"There are big opportunities for countries with cash on their hands, especially for China. We should grasp the opportunities and give firms more freedom in investing overseas," he said.
China has accumulated the world's biggest store for foreign reserves, some $3.31 trillion as at the end of 2012, generated largely as a function of capital controls that have forced Chinese exporters to sell foreign currency to the central bank.
Easing capital controls to let firms more readily use export earnings to buy overseas assets would please many executives who say strict rules and a lengthy approval process for outbound investments are big impediments to doing cross-border deals.
Despite the difficulties, Chinese non-financial outbound foreign direct investment hit a record $14.7 billion in December, taking the 2012 total to $77.2 billion from 2011's $60.1 billion, Commerce Ministry data shows.
Beijing targets a total of $560 billion in outbound foreign direct investment in the five years to end 2015.
REFORMS NEED POLITICAL COURAGE
Zeng Peiyan, a former vice-premier, told the same forum that China's leaders must have "political courage" to quicken economic reforms to help sustain long-term growth.
Zeng, now chairman of top Beijing think-tank the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), said the Chinese economy was "shifting gear" and clearly decelerating from the double-digit average growth rates of the past three decades to 7-8 percent in the foreseeable future.
Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the office of the Central Financial Work Leading Group, a powerful body that charts key government economic policies, said China's growth strategy should focus on improving urbanization in its next stage of development.
Chen, who also heads the ruling Communist Party's office on rural policy, said China's actual urbanization rate is around 35 percent - lower than the official rate of 51 percent.
"In other words there are some 200 million (rural) people who have entered cities, but have not yet become urban residents. This is a big problem that we need to deal with in the future urbanization process," he said.
China's rigid household registration, or hukou, rules are seen by many analysts as China's most pressing reform item as a change there would address inequality and boost domestic demand, rebalancing the core growth drivers of the economy.
The millions of migrant workers who have entered cities from the 250 million-strong rural workforce are denied access to services like health and education, forcing them to save hard and constraining spending that would boost domestic consumption.
Spreading the benefit of China's ascent to its position as a global economic powerhouse is widely seen as the best way of quelling the risk of popular revolt and officials have pledged to gradually loosen hukou controls.
A newly recalibrated official index this month indicated China's gap between rich and poor was so wide that serious social dissatisfaction may be brewing.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Nick Edwards and Ron Popeski)
Jan 24 (Reuters) - Notre Dame football player Manti Te'o said he was the victim of an elaborate online hoax and denied in an interview broadcast on Thursday having had any part in the construction of the dramatic story of his dying girlfriend.
"No, I did not," Te'o said in the interview with Katie Couric broadcast on the daytime talk show "Katie." "I think what people don't realize is that the same day that everybody else found out about this situation, I found out."
The reported deaths of Te'o's grandmother and purported girlfriend, both on Sept. 12, and his response to the tragedies, were often repeated stories during Notre Dame's bid for a national championship last season. His grandmother did die that day.
Te'o, who was a finalist for college football's highest individual honor for helping drive Notre Dame to an undefeated regular season, admitted he maintained the public deception after he learned the truth that she had never existed, but he did not do so for personal gain.
Couric asked Te'o to respond to several theories people have raised since the hoax was revealed, including that he might be gay and created the relationship to hide his sexual orientation.
"No, far from it," Te'o said when asked by Couric if he were gay. "Far from that."
Te'o sat with his hands often clasped and responded in a soft tone to Couric's questions, telling her he did not know if the Lennay Kekua story had supported his Heisman trophy candidacy.
It was his first on-camera interview since sports blog Deadspin.com broke the story on Jan. 16 that Kekua did not exist. Couric also interviewed his parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o, who defended their son.
Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com story to say that Te'o had been duped.
Te'o had told sports network ESPN in an off-camera interview on Friday that an acquaintance, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, had told him he was behind the hoax.
CONFESSED HOAX
Te'o said in the interview with Couric that Tuiasosopo, who he had spoken to twice before and had believed was Kekua's cousin, confessed the hoax to him on Jan. 16.
Te'o said he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on Dec. 6 - two days before the Heisman presentation - and he wasn't really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo's confession to him.
"My whole reality was she was dead, and now all of the sudden she's alive. At that time I didn't know that it was just somebody's prank."
He went along with the Kekua story the day of the Heisman presentation, though he knew at a minimum that she was alive, and did not tell his parents until Christmas, he said.
"Part of me was saying that if you say she is alive what would everybody think? What are you going to tell everybody who follows you, who you inspire? What are you going to say? At that time, on Dec. 8, two days after I just found out she was alive, as a 21-year-old, I wasn't ready for that."
Te'o said he "wasn't forthcoming" about the extent of his relationship with Kekua, that they had never met in person, but reporters did not ask him directly if they had met in person.
He said he was most sorry for having told his father he had seen Kekua in person when he was in Hawaii, a story that his father repeated to media when asked.
When asked why he wouldn't simply want a girlfriend he could spend time with on campus, Te'o said he was drawn to Kekua because her background appeared similar to his own.
"What I went through was real," Te'o said. "The feelings, the pain, the sorrow, that was all real. That is something I can't fake."
Te'o said he did not know how the hoax would affect his position in the National Football League draft.
"As far as my draft status, I hope and pray that good happens obviously, but as long as my family is OK, I can live with whatever happens," he said. (Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Dobbyn)
Johnson will concentrate his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports for the Miami, Florida based full-service itnernational law firm.
Miami, Florida (PRWEB) January 24, 2013
Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP, has hired Associate Attorney Ahmand Johnson, announces Global Managing Partner Michael Diaz, Jr. Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP is a full-service international law firm focusing on trade, customs, financial, commercial and corporate transactions, sports and entertainment, tax, immigration, business and corporate litigation, and arbitration matters.
Johnson focuses his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports. Prior to joining Diaz, Reus & Targ, he worked with a major Florida law firm handling business litigation, intellectual property and sports and entertainment matters. He gained significant entertainment industry experience at a Los Angeles-based entertainment law firm while attending UCLA School of Law. A National Football League Player Association (NFLPA) Certified Contract Advisor, Johnson co-founded a professional sports management company while in law school.
Johnson?s lecture for the Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts and Sports Section entitled ?Attorneys vs. Agents in the Representation of Professional Athletes? is featured as a Continuing Legal Education course. He received the 2009 Young Lawyer Award from the Broward County Legal Aid Service for his pro-bono work in collecting a record judgment on behalf of the organization. Johnson, a varsity football and track and field athlete at Brown University, was a member of 1999 Ivy League Football Championship team.
About Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP
Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP represents dealmakers around the world with a focus on emerging markets. With experienced lawyers in the U. S., Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the firm is uniquely suited to handle a wide range of complex commercial, business, and financial transactions across international borders. Diaz Reus lawyers have experience in government relations, trade, compliance, customs, tax, and immigration, as well as internal and government investigations, complex litigation, and arbitration matters. Diaz Reus operates offices in Miami, Florida; Caracas, Venezuela; Shanghai, China; Dubai, U.A.E.; Iraq; Frankfurt, Germany; Bogota, Colombia; Panama, Republic of Panama; Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and an affiliate office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For more information, visit http://www.diazreus.com or http://www.jdsupra.com/profile/diazreus.
BAY PROBY PROBY & ASSOCIATES (305) 251-3671 Email Information
Most Americans know of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who saved more than 1,200 lives during the Holocaust by hiring Jews to work in his factories and fought Nazi efforts to remove them.
But fewer know about Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who disobeyed his government's orders and issued visas that allowed 6,000 Jews to escape from Nazi-occupied territories via Japan.
On Sunday, as Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a growing and widespread community of Jews -- linked by their gratitude toward Sugihara for saving them or family members -- remembers a man once forgotten.
"Without him, many of the most accomplished minds of our world would not exist today. His legacy produced doctors, bankers, lawyers, authors, politicians, even the first Orthodox Jewish Rhodes Scholar," said Richard Salomon, a board member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. The museum holds artifacts from Sugihara as part of its permanent collection, and will honor him on Sunday along with others who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Salomon's father, Bernard, received the 299th visa issued by Sugihara, who in 1940 became the Japanese consul general to Lithuania, an area where Polish Jewish refugees had relocated during World War II. As Nazis threatened to invade Lithuania, thousands of Jews surrounded the Japanese consulate and asked for visas to escape. Disobeying his bosses in Japan, Sugihara issued thousands. From July 31 to Aug. 28, 1940, Sugihara and his wife stayed up all night, writing visas.
The Japanese government closed the consulate, located in Kovno. But even as Sugihara's train was about to leave the city, he kept writing visas from his open window. When the train began moving, he gave the visa stamp to a refugee to continue the job.
The refugees typically followed a route that took them via train to Moscow, then via the trans-Siberian railroad to Vladivostok and on to Kobe, Japan. Most stayed in Kobe for a few months, then went to Shanghai, China, and elsewhere. Salomon's father went from Shanghai to India and eventually settled in the U.S, where he met his wife Marian in Chicago.
Meanwhile, Sugihara was transferred to Prague, where he worked in 1941 and 1942, and then to Bucharest, where he worked from 1942 to 1944. When the Soviets invaded Romania, he and his family were taken to a prison camp for 18 months. They returned to Japan in 1946, and a year later, the foreign office told him to resign. Years later, his wife, Yukiko Sugihara, who died in 2008, speculated the forced resignation was because of the unauthorized visas.
Chiune Sugihara, who worked odd jobs after returning to Japan and later was employed by a trading company in Russia, worked in obscurity and never spoke of the visas. He never knew if anything came of them and survivors had no luck finding him. But in 1968, a survivor who had become an Israeli diplomat, Joshua Nishri, finally made contact. In 1985, a year before his death in Tokyo, Israel named Sugihara "Righteous Among the Nations," a title given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
"There are so many people living today because he took the time and made the effort. It was not easy and it was not a matter of sitting down and saying, 'Here, I'll write you this,'" said Anne Akabori, an author who translated "Visas for Life," Yukiko Sugihara's memoir, and wrote "The Gift of Life," an account of Chiune Sugihara's life.
"And it's been so important for the Japanese people to know there was a person who did whatever he could to lessen the Japanese involvement in the war. He was always for peace," said Akabori, who was friends with the Sugiharas' son, Hiroki Sugihara, who died in 2001, and chairs the Visas for Life Foundation. The organization's mission is to "perpetuate the legacy" of Chiune Sugihara and connect "Sugihara survivors" and their descendents.
The group has documented 2,139 Sugihara visas (many were for entire families). It's unknown exactly how many people can trace their ancestry to a Sugihara survivor, though Akabori's organization estimated it to be more than 100,000. More conservatively, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that 40,000 people are alive today because of the Sugiharas.
Salomon's son, Mark Salomon, a 23-year-old law student at New York University, said knowing that his family would not have existed without Sugihara has ingrained a lifelong lesson in him about the "power of an individual."
"Most people have this idea that you can't really help the whole world, so what's the point?" said Mark Salomon. But Sugihara showed that "whatever you are doing with yourself, you are having a much broader impact. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees, but it's important in every aspect of your life to remember you are having an effect and to make it a positive effect."
Bernard S. Salomon
Chiune Sugihara issued his 299th visa to Bernard S. Salomon, the father of Richard Salomon and grandfather of Mark Salomon.
Sugihara Survivors in India
Bernard Salomon (back row, far left), his brother Abraham Salomon (also a Sugihara Survivor; back row, far right) and other recipients of visas from Chiune Sugihara when they arrived in Kobe, Japan in late 1940.
Sugihara Survivors in India
Sugihara Survivors in India (Bernard Salomon is in the center) in 1942.
Sugihara Survivors in India
Sugihara Survivors in Calcutta, India (circa 1942). Bernard Salomon is on the far left in the first row.
Bernard and Marian Salomon
Bernard Salomon, a Sugihara Survivor, and his wife Marian Salomon (circa 1948).
Salomon family
Left to right: Richard Salomon, Jacquie Salomon, daughter Evie Salomon and son Mark Salomon.
Copy of Original List of Visas Granted By Chiune Sugihara by
HIV-like viruses in non-human primates have existed much longer than previously thoughtPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Alvino galvino@plos.org Public Library of Science
Viruses similar to those that cause AIDS in humans were present in non-human primates in Africa at least 5 million years ago and perhaps up to 12 million years ago, according to study published January 24 in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Until now, researchers have hypothesized that such viruses originated much more recently.
HIV-1, the virus responsible for AIDS, infiltrated the human population in the early 20th century following multiple transmissions of a similar chimpanzee virus known as SIVcpz. Previous work to determine the age of HIV-like viruses, called lentiviruses, by comparing their genetic blueprints has calculated their origin to be tens of thousands of years ago.
However, other researchers have suspected this time frame to be much too recent. Michael Emerman, Ph.D., a virologist and member of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Alex Compton, a graduate student in the Emerman Lab, describe the use of a technique to estimate the extent to which primates and lentiviruses have coexisted by tracking the changes in a host immunity gene called APOBEC3G that were induced by ancient viral challenges.
They report that this host immunity factor is evolving in tandem with a viral gene that defends the virus against APOBEC3G, which allowed them to determine the minimum age for the association between primates and lentiviruses to be around 5 or 6 million years ago, and possibly up to 12 million years ago.
These findings suggest that HIV-like infections in primates are much older than previously thought, and they have driven selective changes in antiviral genes that have incited an evolutionary arms race that continues to this day. The study also confirms that viruses similar to HIV that are present in various monkey species today are the descendants of ancient pathogens in primates that have shaped how the immune system fights infections.
"More than 40 non-human primate species in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with strains of HIV-related viruses," Emerman said. "Since some of these viruses may have the potential to infect humans as well, it is important to know their origins."
###
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: This work was supported by R01 A130937 (to ME) and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and NIH Training Grant in Viral Pathogenesis T32AI083203 (to AAC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE ADD THIS LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT:
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003135
(link will go live upon embargo lift)
CITATION: Compton AA, Emerman M (2013) Convergence and Divergence in the Evolution of the APOBEC3G-Vif Interaction Reveal Ancient Origins of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses. PLoS Pathog 9(1): e1003135. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003135
Institutional Contact:
Kristen Lidke Woodward
(206) 667-5095
kwoodwar@fhcrc.org
Disclaimer
This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLOS Pathogens. The release is provided by the article authors. Any opinions expressed in these releases or articles are the personal views of the journal staff and/or article contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the releases and articles and your use of such information.
Media Permissions
PLOS Journals publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits free reuse of all materials published with the article, so long as the work is cited (e.g., Kaltenbach LS et al. (2007) Huntingtin Interacting Proteins Are Genetic Modifiers of Neurodegeneration. PLoS Genet 3(5): e82. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030082). No prior permission is required from the authors or publisher. For queries about the license, please contact the relative journal contact indicated here: http://www.plos.org/about/media-inquiries/.
About PLOS Pathogens
PLOS Pathogens publishes outstanding original articles that significantly advance the understanding of pathogens and how they interact with their host organisms. All works published in PLOS Pathogens are open access. Everything is immediately available subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. Copyright is retained by the authors. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License.
About the Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
HIV-like viruses in non-human primates have existed much longer than previously thoughtPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gina Alvino galvino@plos.org Public Library of Science
Viruses similar to those that cause AIDS in humans were present in non-human primates in Africa at least 5 million years ago and perhaps up to 12 million years ago, according to study published January 24 in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens by scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Until now, researchers have hypothesized that such viruses originated much more recently.
HIV-1, the virus responsible for AIDS, infiltrated the human population in the early 20th century following multiple transmissions of a similar chimpanzee virus known as SIVcpz. Previous work to determine the age of HIV-like viruses, called lentiviruses, by comparing their genetic blueprints has calculated their origin to be tens of thousands of years ago.
However, other researchers have suspected this time frame to be much too recent. Michael Emerman, Ph.D., a virologist and member of the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Alex Compton, a graduate student in the Emerman Lab, describe the use of a technique to estimate the extent to which primates and lentiviruses have coexisted by tracking the changes in a host immunity gene called APOBEC3G that were induced by ancient viral challenges.
They report that this host immunity factor is evolving in tandem with a viral gene that defends the virus against APOBEC3G, which allowed them to determine the minimum age for the association between primates and lentiviruses to be around 5 or 6 million years ago, and possibly up to 12 million years ago.
These findings suggest that HIV-like infections in primates are much older than previously thought, and they have driven selective changes in antiviral genes that have incited an evolutionary arms race that continues to this day. The study also confirms that viruses similar to HIV that are present in various monkey species today are the descendants of ancient pathogens in primates that have shaped how the immune system fights infections.
"More than 40 non-human primate species in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with strains of HIV-related viruses," Emerman said. "Since some of these viruses may have the potential to infect humans as well, it is important to know their origins."
###
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: This work was supported by R01 A130937 (to ME) and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and NIH Training Grant in Viral Pathogenesis T32AI083203 (to AAC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
COMPETING INTERESTS: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE ADD THIS LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT:
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003135
(link will go live upon embargo lift)
CITATION: Compton AA, Emerman M (2013) Convergence and Divergence in the Evolution of the APOBEC3G-Vif Interaction Reveal Ancient Origins of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses. PLoS Pathog 9(1): e1003135. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003135
Institutional Contact:
Kristen Lidke Woodward
(206) 667-5095
kwoodwar@fhcrc.org
Disclaimer
This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLOS Pathogens. The release is provided by the article authors. Any opinions expressed in these releases or articles are the personal views of the journal staff and/or article contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the releases and articles and your use of such information.
Media Permissions
PLOS Journals publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits free reuse of all materials published with the article, so long as the work is cited (e.g., Kaltenbach LS et al. (2007) Huntingtin Interacting Proteins Are Genetic Modifiers of Neurodegeneration. PLoS Genet 3(5): e82. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030082). No prior permission is required from the authors or publisher. For queries about the license, please contact the relative journal contact indicated here: http://www.plos.org/about/media-inquiries/.
About PLOS Pathogens
PLOS Pathogens publishes outstanding original articles that significantly advance the understanding of pathogens and how they interact with their host organisms. All works published in PLOS Pathogens are open access. Everything is immediately available subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. Copyright is retained by the authors. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License.
About the Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
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