Signature of viral fossils: a comparative genomics approach to understand the diversity of endogenous retroviruses in bats.

ABSTRACT: Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are traces of past viral infections commonly found in vertebrate genomes. Many ERVs are tightly regulated by the host genomes and co-opted for various functions within the hosts. Bats are the only true volant mammals, with the smallest mammalian genomes and a high fraction of ERVs within the genomes. They are important hosts for various zoonotic viral pathogens and can effectively modulate their immune response to tolerate viral infections. Integrations of retroviruses have been implicated as one of the mechanisms by which bats have co-evolved strategies to combat viral infections. In this study, we investigated the diversity of ERVs in over 40 publicly available bat genomes to understand the distribution and the evolution of ERVs within bats. We observed all

SUBMITTER: Lamba V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11546543 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature