Mayer J, Meese E
Department of Human Genetics, Medical Faculty, University of Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Germany.
Cytogenet Genome Res. 2005;110(1-4):448-56. doi: 10.1159/000084977.
Primates emerged about 60 million years ago. Since that time various primate-targeting retroviruses have integrated in the germ line of primate species, and some drifted to fixation. After germ line fixation, continued activity of proviruses resulted in intragenomic spread of so-called endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). Variant ERVs emerged, amplified in the genome and profoundly altered genome structures and potentially functionality. Importantly, ERVs are genome modifiers of exogenous origin. The human genome contains about 8% of sequences of retroviral origin. The human ERVs (HERVs) comprise many distinct families that amplified to copy numbers of up to several thousand. We review here the evolution of several well-characterized HERV families in the human lineage since initial germ line fixation. It is apparent that endogenous retroviruses profoundly affected the genomes of species in the evolutionary lineage leading to Homo sapiens.
灵长类动物大约在6000万年前出现。自那时起，各种靶向灵长类动物的逆转录病毒已整合到灵长类物种的种系中，并且一些已漂移至固定状态。在种系固定之后，前病毒的持续活动导致了所谓内源性逆转录病毒（ERV）在基因组内的传播。变异的ERV出现，在基因组中扩增并深刻改变了基因组结构以及潜在的功能。重要的是，ERV是外源起源的基因组修饰因子。人类基因组包含约8%的逆转录病毒起源序列。人类ERV（HERV）包括许多不同的家族，其扩增至多达数千个拷贝数。我们在此回顾自最初种系固定以来人类谱系中几个特征明确的HERV家族的进化。显然，内源性逆转录病毒在导致智人的进化谱系中深刻影响了物种的基因组。
