Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2020 Mar 28;221(8):1208-1209.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz200.

Mixing It Up: New Insights Into Interspecies Recombination Between Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and 2

D Scott Schmid  1
Affiliations
Editorial

Mixing It Up: New Insights Into Interspecies Recombination Between Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and 2

D Scott Schmid. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are closely related alphaherpesviruses, with more than 80% identity at the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence level [1]. More than two thirds of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with one or both viruses. The divergence of the common ancestor to these viruses is thought to have coincided with the separation of the human and chimpanzee lineages approximately 6 million years ago, leading to separate evolution of HSV-1 and HSV-2, respectively. Zoonotic transmission of HSV-2 to an extinct early hominid occurred approximately one and a half million years ago [2]. No other primate species are known to serve as common hosts for 2 distinct herpes simplex species.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. The author: No reported conflicts of interest. The author has submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest.

Comment on

References

    1. Roizman B, Knipe DM, Whitley RJ. Herpes simplex viruses. In: Knipe DM, Howley PM, eds, Field’s virology, 6th ed, Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2013: pp 1828.
    1. Wertheim JO, Smith MD, Smith DM, Scheffler K, Kosakovsky Pond SL. Evolutionary origins of human herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2. Mol Biol Evol 2014; 31:2356–64. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Renner DW, Szpara ML. Impacts of genome-wide analyses on our understanding of human herpesvirus diversity and evolution. J Virol 2018; 92:e00908–17. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Loparev VN, Rubtcova EN, Bostik V, et al. Identification of five major and two minor genotypes of varicella-zoster virus strains: a practical two-amplicon approach used to genotype clinical isolates in Australia and New Zealand. J Virol 2007; 81:12758–65. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Loparev VN, Rubtcova EN, Bostik V, et al. Distribution of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) wild-type genotypes in northern and southern Europe: evidence for high conservation of circulating genotypes. Virology 2009; 383:216–25. - PubMed