Human endogenous retroviruses: from ancestral pathogens to bona fide genes
Humans and their endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are in the most intimate host-pathogen relationship. In this article in Microbiology Today (February 2008), David Griffiths and Cecile Voisset look at the role of HERVs and question their future:
Over the course of evolution, retroviruses have invaded the germ-line of our ancestors on numerous occasions such that human ERVs (HERVs) now comprise ~8 % of our genome. These can be divided into around 30 different families, each representing a different ancestral infection event. The timing of their introduction into the genome ranges from over 30 million years ago up to less than 1 million years ago, depending on the family. Since HERVs represent ancient infections, they are not closely related to retroviruses currently circulating in humans, such as HIV. Instead, they have greater sequence similarity with ERVs of animals …
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Tags: Biology, Genetics, Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Science, Virology
