Phylogeny of a novel family of human endogenous retrovirus sequences, HERV-W, in humans and other primates.
A novel human endogenous retrovirus, HERV-W, has been characterized on the basis of multiple sclerosis-associated retrovirus (MSRV) probes. We have analyzed the phylogenetic distribution of HERV-W in humans and other primate species. As HERV-W presents a C/D chimeric nature and is largely composed of deleted elements, Southern blots were performed using gag, pol, env, and LTR probes. The relative complexities observed for gag, pol, env, and LTR regions were similar in humans, apes, and Old World monkeys, the minimal number of bands observed after Southern blot analysis being 25, 50, 10, and at least 100, respectively. The HERV-W family entered the genome of catarrhines more than 25 million years ago.
Voisset
C
C
Unité Mixte de Recherche 103 CNRS-bioMérieux, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France.
Blancher
A
A
Perron
H
H
Mandrand
B
B
Mallet
F
F
Paranhos-Baccalà
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern / Q000662:veterinary; D015342:DNA Probes / Q000235:genetics; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000235:genetics; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000235:genetics; D015684:Gene Products, pol / Q000235:genetics; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011323:Primates / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics
D015342:DNA Probes; D015686:Gene Products, env; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D015684:Gene Products, pol; D012367:RNA, Viral