Until now scientists believed that Ebola virusdated back 10,000 years. The reality is much more impressive. Researchers at the University of Buffalo (United States) have discovered that the filovirus, the family of infectious agents to which Ebola and the Marburg virus belong, have an ancestor 16 to 23 million years old!
Ebola is said to share the same ancestor as the Marburg virus, another type of hemorrhagic fever, also a member of the filovirus family. “These viruses [Marburg et Ebola] have interacted with mammals for millions of years, ”says Derek Taylor, study author and professor of biology at the University of Buffalo.
This find was made by observing the fossil genes of rodents. The same VP35 gene has been identified in the same part of the genomes of four different species of rodents, namely two species of hamsters and two species of voles.
The genetic material in the fossils is closer to the Ebola virus than to the Marburg virus, suggesting that “the two lineages began to diverge around the Miocene period, approximately 23 million years ago.”
The interest of knowing the history of a virus
The first known Ebola outbreak was identified in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Sudan. Beyond that, we still know very little about the history of this virus which is currently plaguing West Africa. However, this knowledge could make it possible to take an enormous step in the development of new vaccines to fight this feverhemorrhagic.
“Understanding the distant past of the virus could help in disease prevention,” confirms Derek Taylor in the scientific journal Peer J.
