Natural history of the ERVWE1 endogenous retroviral locus.
BACKGROUND
The human HERV-W multicopy family includes a unique proviral locus, termed ERVWE1, whose full-length envelope ORF was preserved through evolution by the action of a selective pressure. The encoded Env protein (Syncytin) is involved in hominoid placental physiology.


RESULTS
In order to infer the natural history of this domestication process, a comparative genomic analysis of the human 7q21.2 syntenic regions in eutherians was performed. In primates, this region was progressively colonized by LTR-elements, leading to two different evolutionary pathways in Cercopithecidae and Hominidae, a genetic drift versus a domestication, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The preservation in Hominoids of a genomic structure consisting in the juxtaposition of a retrotransposon-derived MaLR LTR and the ERVWE1 provirus suggests a functional link between both elements.
Bonnaud
Bertrand
B
UMR 2714 CNRS-bioMérieux, IFR128 BioSciences Lyon-Gerland Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France. bertrand.bonnaud@ens-lyon.fr
Beliaeff
Jean
J
Bouton
Olivier
O
Oriol
Guy
G
Duret
Laurent
L
Mallet
François
F
D000818:Animals; D002520:Cercopithecidae; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002897:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000235:genetics*; D040961:Genetic Drift; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D005810:Multigene Family; D018626:Retroelements; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences
D015686:Gene Products, env; D018626:Retroelements