Evolution - Week One discussion

Questions for Review

What are the some of the factors that allows HIV to evolve very rapidly?

What are two important outcomes of the HIV virus having a very fast evolutionary rate?

What is the significance that two strains of HIV, HIV-1 and HIV-2, are not each other’s closest relatives, but are each instead most closely related to different strains of SIVs (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus)?

Why is it important that HIV-1 and HIV-2 are each most prevalent in different parts of Africa, in the same areas where Chimpanzees (HIV-1) and sooty mangabeys (HIV-2) are each prevalent, respectively?

What is the molecular evidence that HIV/SIV has had several spillover events from primates to humans?

What is a molecular clock?

What kind of information does the molecular clock provide about the timescale of HIV-1 and HIV-2 epidemics?

What is the most likely mechanism by which HIV spilled over into humans from primates?

What is evidence of the spillover mechanism?

What is within host evolution’

What is the role of drift and immune selection in driving within host evolution?

Can HIV evolve in response to our drug therapies?