Identification, characterization and comparative genomics of chimpanzee endogenous retroviruses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Retrotransposons, the most abundant and widespread class of eukaryotic transposable elements, are believed to play a significant role in mutation and disease and to have contributed significantly to the evolution of genome structure and function. The recent sequencing of the chimpanzee genome is providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the functional significance of these elements in two closely related primate species and to better evaluate their role in primate evolution.

Results

We report here that the chimpanzee genome contains at least 42 separate families of endogenous retroviruses, nine of which were not previously identified. All but two (CERV 1/PTERV1 and CERV 2) of the 42 families of chimpanzee endogenous retroviruses were found to have orthologs

SUBMITTER: Polavarapu N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1779541 | biostudies-literature | 2006

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature