Retroviral envelope syncytin capture in an ancestrally diverged mammalian clade for placentation in the primitive Afrotherian tenrecs.

ABSTRACT: Syncytins are fusogenic envelope (env) genes of retroviral origin that have been captured for a function in placentation. Syncytins have been identified in Euarchontoglires (primates, rodents, Leporidae) and Laurasiatheria (Carnivora, ruminants) placental mammals. Here, we searched for similar genes in species that retained characteristic features of primitive mammals, namely the Malagasy and mainland African Tenrecidae. They belong to the superorder Afrotheria, an early lineage that diverged from Euarchotonglires and Laurasiatheria 100 Mya, during the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution. An in silico search for env genes with full coding capacity within a Tenrecidae genome identified several candidates, with one displaying placenta-specific expression as revealed by RT-PCR analysis of a lar

SUBMITTER: Cornelis G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4205661 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature