The endogenous retroviral locus ERVWE1 is a bona fide gene involved in hominoid placental physiology.

ABSTRACT: The definitive demonstration of a role for a recently acquired gene is a difficult task, requiring exhaustive genetic investigations and functional analysis. The situation is indeed much more complicated when facing multicopy gene families, because most or portions of the gene are conserved among the hundred copies of the family. This is the case for the ERVWE1 locus of the human endogenous retrovirus W family (HERV-W), which encodes an envelope glycoprotein (syncytin) likely involved in trophoblast differentiation. Here we describe, in 155 individuals, the positional conservation of this locus and the preservation of the envelope ORF. Sequencing of the critical elements of the ERVWE1 provirus showed a striking conservation among the 48 alleles of 24 individuals, including the LTR elements

SUBMITTER: Mallet F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC341840 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature