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Natural history of the ERVWE1 endogenous retroviral locus.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The human HERV-W multicopy family includes a unique proviral locus, termed ERVWE1, whose full-length envelope ORF was preserved through evolution by the action of a selective pressure. The encoded Env protein (Syncytin) is involved in hominoid placental physiology. RESULTS: In order to infer the natural history of this domestication process, a comparative genomic analysis of the human 7q21.2 syntenic regions in eutherians was performed. In primates, this region was progressively colonized by LTR-elements, leading to two different evolutionary pathways in Cercopithecidae and Hominidae, a genetic drift versus a domestication, respectively. CONCLUSION: The preservation in Hominoids of a genomic structure consisting in the juxtaposition of a retrotransposon-derived MaLR LTR and the ERVWE1 provirus suggests a functional link between both elements.

SUBMITTER: Bonnaud B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1262775 | biostudies-literature | 2005

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Natural history of the ERVWE1 endogenous retroviral locus.

Bonnaud Bertrand B Beliaeff Jean J Bouton Olivier O Oriol Guy G Duret Laurent L Mallet François F

Retrovirology 20050922

<h4>Background</h4>The human HERV-W multicopy family includes a unique proviral locus, termed ERVWE1, whose full-length envelope ORF was preserved through evolution by the action of a selective pressure. The encoded Env protein (Syncytin) is involved in hominoid placental physiology.<h4>Results</h4>In order to infer the natural history of this domestication process, a comparative genomic analysis of the human 7q21.2 syntenic regions in eutherians was performed. In primates, this region was progr ...[more]

PMID: 16176588

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