title: Molecular phylogeny and evolution of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-W LTR family in hominoid primates.
abstract: Long terminal repeats (LTRs) of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) have contributed to the structural change or genetic variation of primate genome that are connected to speciation and evolution. Using genomic DNAs that were derived from hominoid primates (chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and gibbon), we performed PCR amplification and identified thirty HERV-W LTR elements. These LTR elements showed a 82-98% sequence similarity with HERV-W LTR (AF072500). Specifically, additional sequences (GCCACCACCACTGTTT in the gorilla and TGCTGCTGACTCCCATCC in the gibbon) were noticed. Clone OR3 from the orangutan and clone GI2 from the gibbon showed a 100% sequence similarity, although they are different species. This indicates that both LTR elements were proliferated during the last 2 to 5 million years from the integration of the original LTR element. A phylogenetic tree that was obtained by the neighbor-joining method revealed a wide overlap of the LTR elements across species, suggesting that the HERV-W LTR family evolved independently during the hominoid evolution.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.forename: Kyung-Won
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Joo-Mi
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Tae-Hyung
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Takenaka
authors.forename: Won-Ho
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Heui-Soo
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002520:Cercopithecidae / Q000235:genetics; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000235:genetics; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D006922:Hylobates / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000235:genetics; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics*