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-deriv

SUBMITTER: Bonnaud B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1262775 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature