You Can Now Blame Paranthropus Boisei for Genital Herpes

Researchers Underdown, Kumar, and Houldcroft have proposed in a recent study that the robust australopithecine known as Paranthropus boisei might be the reason why genital herpes exists in the human population today.  Genetic analysis done by early researchers revealed that the virus that causes genital herpes, HSV2, is closer to the chimpanzee herpes variant, ChHV2, than it is to its counterpart HSV1 (cold sores).  Using that data, researchers hypothesized that HSV2 was not passed along to hominins from the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, but across species lines later down in evolutionary history between 3 and 1.4 million years ago.  What Underdown, Kumar, and Houldcroft conclude, using the statistical analysis of temporal and spatial relationships between early hominins and ancestral chimpanzees, is that Paranthropus boisei represents the most important, and most plausable intermediate transmitter of the HSV2 into hominin populations.  You can, therefore, blame Zinj giving humans genital herpes.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoc-mth092717.php

Amanda Kunkle