Ancestral capture of syncytin-Car1, a fusogenic endogenous retroviral envelope gene involved in placentation and conserved in Carnivora.

ABSTRACT: Syncytins are envelope protein genes of retroviral origin that have been captured for a function in placentation. Two such genes have already been identified in simians, two distinct, unrelated genes have been identified in Muridae, and a fifth gene has been identified in the rabbit. Here, we searched for similar genes in the Laurasiatheria clade, which diverged from Euarchontoglires--primates, rodents, and lagomorphs--shortly after mammalian radiation (100 Mya). In silico search for envelope protein genes with full-coding capacity within the dog and cat genomes identified several candidate genes, with one common to both species that displayed placenta-specific expression, which was revealed by RT-PCR analysis of a large panel of tissues. This gene belongs to a degenerate endogenous retrov

SUBMITTER: Cornelis G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3289388 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature