[Taxacom] Chimps and humans

[John Grehan]

The problem here is that chimpanzees and orangutans do not overlap in
their range and so different parasite associations with humans could be
the result of their different geography. Same applies to overlap of
orangutans and gibbons. Using host-parasite associations has the same
challenges as any other systematic comparison. 

John Grehan 

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:56 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Chimps and humans

Dear All.
      I was told offline that there was a recent paper on the subject of
chimp and human malaria.  I just found that it was published online on
03 August 2009 in Proc. National Acad. Sciences, by Rich et al.
     The results of their study indicates that Plasmodium reichenowi
(the cause of malaria in chimpanzees is actually paraphyletic with
respect to P. falciparum (the most deadly form of malaria in humans).
Since these Plasmodium species are apparently not sister species at all,
that makes me now wonder whether or not Plasmodium parasites can
directly shed light on the supposed sister relationship between chimps
and humans.  Perhaps other parasites would be more useful.  In any case,
I find nothing at all in malarial parasites showing a human-orangutan
relationship (on the contrary, they indicate that malaria in orangutans
may have been directly inherited from a common ancestor with gibbons).
       ---------Ken Kinman


_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of
these methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:
site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here