Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 37, Issue 11, Pages 3232-3242Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa180
Keywords
endogenous retrovirus; paleovirology; co-option; phylogenetics
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31922001, 31701091]
- Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
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Endogenous retroviruses are ubiquitous in the vertebrate genomes. On occasion, hosts recruited retroviral genes to mediate their own biological functions, a process formally known as co-option or exaptation. Much remains unknown about the extent of retroviral gene co-option in vertebrates, although more than ten retroviral gene co-option events have been documented. Here, we use a phylogenomic approach to analyzemore than 700 vertebrate genomes to uncover retroviral gene co-option taking place during the evolution of vertebrates. We identify a total of 177 independent retroviral gene co-option events in vertebrates, a majority of which have not been reported previously. Among these retroviral gene co-option events, 93 and 84 involve gag and env genes, respectively. More than 78.0% (138 out of 177) of retroviral gene co-option occurred withinmammals. The gag and env co-option events share a generally similar temporal pattern with less frequent retroviral gene co-option identified in the deep branches, suggesting that retroviral gene cooption might have not been maintained for very long time periods. Moreover, we find co-opted retroviral genes are subject to different selection pressure, implying potentially diverse cellular functionality. Our study provides a comprehensive picture of co-opted retroviral genes during the evolution of vertebrates and has implications in understanding the ancient evolution of vertebrate-retrovirus interaction.
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