My Candidate for the Ebola Reservoir Organism (was Re: Chimpanzee Ebola outbreak)

[Ulrich Melcher]

Yes, the question of a plant reservoir for Ebola virus has come up in 
this very same newsgroup.
I responded with sequence comparisons that argue that it is highly 
unlikely.  Please look up that posting for details.

Ulrich Melcher
Biochem & Mol Biol
Oklahoma State Univ

sputnam at tfb.com (Shan Putnam) wrote:
>Has anyone considered looking into the possibility that the natural
>reservoir is a plant?  Could this be a very, very rare virus that
>naturally occurs in plants, but when ingested/inoculated (via a thorn)
>into a warm-blood animals it adapts to that host.  I know that the
>outer membrane of the virus is acquired via a "budding" process
>throught eukaryotic cells.  I have read/heard that there has been a
>lot of cash, time and sweat spent looking for it's natural home with
>absolutely no luck.  Just a wild thought. 
>