Tag Archive for 'Retrovirus'

Amoebidium appalachense is a unique model to understand the hybrid origins of eukaryotic DNA. Image credit: Alex de Mendoza.

Biologists Find Ancient Giant Virus Insertions in Genome of Unicellular Parasite

Jul 16, 2024 by News Staff

Amoebidium appalachense, a protist closely related to animals, harbors the remnants of ancient giant viruses woven into its own genetic code, according...

Ghosh et al. suggest that retroviral endogenization played a prominent role in the emergence of vertebrate myelin. Image credit: Ghosh et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.011.

Study: Ancient Retroviruses Shaped Vertebrate Brains

Feb 19, 2024 by News Staff

Biologists from Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science, the University of Cambridge and elsewhere have found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element...

Possible sites of HML-2 expression. Image credit: Burn et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001826.

Ancient Retroviruses Make Up 8% of Human Genome, Researchers Say

Oct 26, 2022 by The Conversation

Like modern HIV, ancient human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) had to insert their genetic material into their host’s genome to replicate. Possible sites...

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1, grown in cultured lymphocytes; virions are seen as small spheres on the surface of the cells. Image credit: C. Goldsmith.

Recently-Discovered Antiviral Protein Inhibits HIV-1 in Non-Human Primates

Jan 18, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered that a gene called SLFN11 — which encodes a protein known as Schlafen...

Brattas et al. report that ERVs are bound by TRIM28 in human neural progenitor cells. This results in the establishment of local heterochromatin that affects nearby gene expression, suggesting a role for ERVs in the control of transcriptional networks in the developing human brain. Interestingly, ERVs bound by TRIM28 are mostly enriched for elements that integrated around 35–55 million years ago, thus not binding to the most recent ERVs as well as ancient elements. Image credit: Per Ludvik Brattas et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.12.010.

Study: Endogenous Retroviruses in Genome Important for Human Brain

Jan 13, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

About 8% of the human genome is composed of endogenous retroviruses. According to a new study published in the journal Cell Reports, these retroviruses...

Scanning electromicrograph of an HIV-infected H9 T cell. Image credit: NIAID / CC BY 2.0.

Retroviruses Originated in Ocean 450 Million Years Ago, New Study Says

Jan 10, 2017 by News Staff

Retroviruses (Retroviridae) — a family of viruses that includes pathogens such as HIV, feline leukemia, and several cancer-causing viruses —...

This electron micrograph shows particles of the Phoenix provirus resurrected from human DNA in 2006. Scale bar - 200 nm (Marie Dewannieux et al).

Nineteen New Pieces of Ancient Retroviral DNA Found in Human Genome

Mar 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nineteen previously unidentified pieces of non-human DNA — left by retroviruses that first infected human ancestors hundreds of thousands of years...

Retrovirus particles budding from rhesus macaque placenta cells. Image credit: Dorothy Feldman, via aacrjournals.org.

Biologists Uncover History of Ancient Retroviruses as Far Back as 33 Million Years Ago

Mar 9, 2016 by News Staff

A group of scientists at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, has reconstructed the natural history of a specific retrovirus lineage — ERV-Fc — that...

An atomic model of the immature retroviral lattice of RSV. Image credit: Boon Chong Goh / University of Illinois.

Scientists Construct Atomic Model of Immature Retrovirus

Aug 13, 2015 by News Staff

A team of computational and experimental researchers headed by Prof Klaus Schulten from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has constructed...