title: Natural history of the ERVWE1 endogenous retroviral locus.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bonnaud
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beliaeff
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bouton
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oriol
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duret
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mallet
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D015686:Gene Products, env; D018626:Retroelements