Browsing by Author "Boesch, Christophe"

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    Novel Adenoviruses in Wild Primates: a High Level of Genetic Diversity and Evidence of Zoonotic Transmissions
    (Journal of virology, 2011) Wevers, Diana; Metzger, Sonja; Babweteera, Fred; Bieberbach, Marc; Boesch, Christophe; Mugisha, Lawrence; Ehlers, Bernhard
    Adenoviruses (AdVs) broadly infect vertebrate hosts, including a variety of nonhuman primates (NHPs). In the present study, we identified AdVs in NHPs living in their natural habitats, and through the combination of phylogenetic analyses and information on the habitats and epidemiological settings, we detected possible horizontal transmission events between NHPs and humans. Wild NHPs were analyzed with a pan-primate AdV-specific PCR using a degenerate nested primer set that targets the highly conserved adenovirus DNA polymerase gene. A plethora of novel AdV sequences were identified, representing at least 45 distinct AdVs. From the AdV-positive individuals, 29 nearly complete hexon genes were amplified and, based on phylogenetic analysis, tentatively allocated to all known human AdV species (Human adenovirus A to Human adenovirus G [HAdV-A to -G]) as well as to the only simian AdV species (Simian adenovirus A [SAdV-A]). Interestingly, five of the AdVs detected in great apes grouped into the HAdV-A, HAdV-D, HAdV-F, or SAdV-A clade. Furthermore, we report the first detection of AdVs in New World monkeys, clustering at the base of the primate AdV evolutionary tree. Most notably, six chimpanzee AdVs of species HAdV-A to HAdV-F revealed a remarkably close relationship to human AdVs, possibly indicating recent interspecies transmission events.
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    Wild Chimpanzees Infected with 5 Plasmodium Species
    (Emerging infectious diseases, 2010) Kaiser, Marco; Löwa, Anna; Ulrich, Markus; Ellerbrok, Heinz; Goffe, Adeelia S.; Blasse, Anja; Zommers, Zinta; Couacy-Hymann, Emmanuel; Babweteera, Fred; Zuberbühler, Klaus; Metzger, Sonja; Geidel, Sebastian; Boesch, Christophe; Gillespie, Thomas R.; Leendertz, Fabian H.
    Despite ongoing and, in some regions, escalating morbidity and mortality rates associated with malariacausing parasites, the evolutionary epidemiology of Plasmodium spp. is not well characterized. Classical studies of the blood pathogens of primates have found protozoa resembling human malaria parasites in chimpanzees and gorillas (1); however, these studies were limited to microscopy, negating conclusions regarding evolutionary relationships between human and ape parasites. Recent studies that used molecular approaches showed that captive and wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), as well as captive bonobos (Pan paniscus), harbor parasites broadly related to P. falciparum (2–5); wild and captive gorillas and captive bonobos and chimpanzees are sometimes infected with P. falciparum itself (4–6). Further, captive chimpanzees and bonobos have been shown to have malaria parasites related to human P. ovale and P. malariae (6–8); P. vivax has been identified in various monkeys and 1 semiwild chimpanzee (5,9). Recently, P. knowlesi, a simian malaria species, became the fifth human-infecting species (10), highlighting the possibility of transmission of new Plasmodium spp. from wild primates to humans.