<i>Apobec3</i> shows rapid evolution in house mouse subspecies and unusual hypermutation patterns of endogenous mouse mammary tumor viruses.

ABSTRACT: Apobec3 (A3, apolipoprotein B editing complex 3) is a cytidine deaminase with broadly antiretroviral activity. A3 is packaged in virions and converts cytidines to uracil (C > U) in viral minus-strand DNA during reverse transcription, resulting in guanosine to adenosine (G > A) mutations in the viral plus strand. Mouse Apobec3 (mA3) mutagenizes numerous infectious retroviruses and some families of endogenous retroviruses. Here we show that endogenous mouse mammary tumor viruses, termed Mtvs, show a range of mA3 hypermutation from trace levels to an extreme example, Mtv21, that sustained a catastrophic, genome-wide reduction of G content to 10.8%; this level is associated with the contemporaneous generation of new preferred trinucleotide target sites by mutagenesis of consecuti

SUBMITTER: Shaffer E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12548423 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature