Chimpanzees are recognized as the primary primate reservoir for simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) — the most closely related virus to HIV-1, which causes AIDS in humans. Earlier this year, the origins of both a pandemic and non-pandemic form of HIV-1 were traced to distinct chimpanzee groups in southern Cameroon. The same research team found that wild gorillas in western Cameroon were infected with a variant of SIV that is more closely related to a strain of HIV-1 (see page 164).

The ten-year collaboration of researchers — from France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Cameroon — collected fecal samples from chimpanzees and gorillas in the remote regions of Cameroon. “It is key to have a local team involved in such research efforts,” says Martine Peeters, a virologist at the University of Montpellier, France.

The samples were sent to labs in France and Alabama equipped to extract fecal RNA.

Peeters stresses that the gorilla findings don't negate previous chimpanzee work. “Chimpanzees could have transmitted the newly found virus to gorillas and humans independently, or they could have been transmitted first to gorillas, who transmitted it to humans,” she says.

The team will soon perform analyses at a molecular-biology lab to be built in Cameroon.