Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2012 Nov;27(11):627-36. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.007. Epub 2012 Aug 14.
Paleovirology, the study of viruses on evolutionary timescales, can exploit information from endogenous viral elements (EVEs), which are the result of heritable horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from viruses to hosts. The availability of genomic data has increased opportunities to study EVEs, and bioinformatics techniques have been crucial in cataloguing EVE diversity and taxonomic coverage. Recent advances show that some EVEs have been co-opted as cellular genes, often as inhibitors of viral infection. These genes are an intriguing strategy in virus-host evolutionary battles in that genetic material is transferred from virus to host, and then used by the host against the virus. In this review, we consider the genes and processes involved in EVE-derived immunity (EDI), assess factors leading to its emergence, and outline how future work will benefit from incorporating evolutionary approaches.
古病毒学是研究病毒在进化时间尺度上的学科，可以利用内源性病毒元件 (EVEs) 的信息，这些元件是病毒向宿主遗传水平基因转移 (HGT) 的结果。基因组数据的可用性增加了研究 EVEs 的机会，而生物信息学技术在分类 EVE 多样性和分类覆盖范围方面至关重要。最近的进展表明，一些 EVEs 已被篡夺为细胞基因，通常作为病毒感染的抑制剂。这些基因是病毒-宿主进化斗争中的一个有趣策略，因为遗传物质从病毒转移到宿主，然后被宿主用于对抗病毒。在这篇综述中，我们考虑了 EVE 衍生免疫 (EDI) 涉及的基因和过程，评估了导致其出现的因素，并概述了未来的工作如何受益于纳入进化方法。
