HIV-1 vs HIV-2

[Patrick O'Neil]

On 16 Mar 1995, Gary Ross wrote:

> Thanks Patrick. That was a good overview. Is HIV your field of   
> research?  How long have the strains been differentiated? 
>  
> - Gary Ross

Hello.  HIV is only indirectly my research.  I work with recombination 
and mutation frequency.  Though my own work presently revolves around 
bacterial MutS and mismatch repair, the lab I am in also studies reverse 
transcriptase, especially its error rate as it relates to HIV mutation 
rates as a whole.
 
As you can see, if you saw the message to me from Rybicki, there is some 
dispute over the origins of HIV.  Beyond the work of the lab I am 
attached to, I also have an interest in general in viruses.  Most of my 
evolutionary information derives from several sources, but in particular, 
Paul W. Ewald's book, _Evolution of Infectious Disease_.  An excellent 
book that addresses epidemics from an evolutionary perspective and 
discusses means of understanding, and perhaps preventing, many epidemics 
based on selective pressures.  Ewald sites many supporting works for his 
propositions and theories.  

Patrick