Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 368, Issue 1626, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0503
Keywords
retrovirus evolution; mammalian evolution; selfish genetic elements; mammalian-wide interspersed repeat; genomics; paleovirology
Categories
Funding
- Wellcome Trust
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The evolutionary arms race between mammals and retroviruses has long been recognized as one of the oldest host-parasite interactions. Rapid evolution rates in exogenous retroviruses have often made accurate viral age estimations highly problematic. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), however, integrate into the germline of their hosts, and are subjected to their evolutionary rates. This study describes, for the first time, a retroviral orthologue predating the divergence of placental mammals, giving it a minimum age of 104-110 Myr. Simultaneously, other orthologous selfish genetic elements (SGEs), inserted into the ERV sequence, provide evidence for the oldest individual mammalian-wide interspersed repeat and medium-reiteration frequency interspersed repeat mammalian repeats, with the same minimum age. The combined use of shared SGEs and reconstruction of viral orthologies defines new limits and increases maximum 'lookback' times, with subsequent implications for the field of paleovirology.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available