title: The discovery of endogenous retroviruses.
abstract: When endogenous retroviruses (ERV) were discovered in the late 1960s, the Mendelian inheritance of retroviral genomes by their hosts was an entirely new concept. Indeed Howard M Temin's DNA provirus hypothesis enunciated in 1964 was not generally accepted, and reverse transcriptase was yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, the evidence that we accrued in the pre-molecular era has stood the test of time, and our hypothesis on ERV, which one reviewer described as 'impossible', proved to be correct. Here I recount some of the key observations in birds and mammals that led to the discovery of ERV, and comment on their evolution, cross-species dispersion, and what remains to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infection & Immunity, University College London, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JF, UK. r.weiss@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robin A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000821:virology; D051379:Mice; D010802:Phylogeny; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D014773:Virology / Q000266:history