Lineage-specific expansions of retroviral insertions within the genomes of African great apes but not humans and orangutans.

ABSTRACT: Retroviral infections of the germline have the potential to episodically alter gene function and genome structure during the course of evolution. Horizontal transmissions between species have been proposed, but little evidence exists for such events in the human/great ape lineage of evolution. Based on analysis of finished BAC chimpanzee genome sequence, we characterize a retroviral element (Pan troglodytes endogenous retrovirus 1 [PTERV1]) that has become integrated in the germline of African great ape and Old World monkey species but is absent from humans and Asian ape genomes. We unambiguously map 287 retroviral integration sites and determine that approximately 95.8% of the insertions occur at non-orthologous regions between closely related species. Phylogenetic analysis of the endogen

SUBMITTER: Yohn CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1054887 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature