Sex-specific aspects of endogenous retroviral insertion and deletion.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We wish to understand how sex and recombination affect endogenous retroviral insertion and deletion. While theory suggests that the risk of ectopic recombination will limit the accumulation of repetitive DNA in areas of high meiotic recombination, the experimental evidence so far has been inconsistent. Under the assumption of neutrality, we examine the genomes of eighteen species of animal in order to compute the ratio of solo-LTRs that derive from insertions occurring down the male germ line as opposed to the female one (male bias). We also extend the simple idea of comparing autosome to allosome in order to predict the ratio of full-length proviruses we would expect to see under conditions of recombination linked deletion or otherwise.

Results

Using our model, w

SUBMITTER: Gemmell P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3827010 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature