The diversity and evolution of retroviruses: Perspectives from viral “fossils”
Authors:
Open Access
- 19 January 2022
- journal article
- review article
- Published by KEAI Publishing in Virologica Sinica
- Vol. 37 (1) , 11-18
Abstract
Retroviruses exclusively infect vertebrates, causing a variety of diseases. The replication of retroviruses requires reverse transcription and integration into host genomes. When infecting germline cells, retroviruses become inherited vertically, forming endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). ERVs document past viral infections, providing molecular fossils for studying the evolutionary history of retroviruses. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in understanding the diversity and evolution of retroviruses from the perspectives of viral fossils, and discuss the effects of ERVs on the evolution of host biology.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31922001)
This publication has 104 references indexed in Scilit:
- One Hundred Twenty Years of Koala Retrovirus Evolution Determined from Museum SkinsMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2012
- Env-less endogenous retroviruses are genomic superspreadersProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
- Endogenous viruses: insights into viral evolution and impact on host biologyNature Reviews Genetics, 2012
- Origin, antiviral function and evidence for positive selection of the gammaretrovirus restriction gene Fv1 in the genus MusProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009
- Identification of a RELIK orthologue in the European hare (Lepus europaeus) reveals a minimum age of 12 million years for the lagomorph lentivirusesVirology, 2009
- A transitional endogenous lentivirus from the genome of a basal primate and implications for lentivirus evolutionProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
- Transposable elements and the evolution of regulatory networksNature Reviews Genetics, 2008
- Automated recognition of retroviral sequences in genomic data—RetroTector©Nucleic Acids Research, 2007
- Discovery and analysis of the first endogenous lentivirusProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
- Genomewide screening for fusogenic human endogenous retrovirus envelopes identifies syncytin 2, a gene conserved on primate evolutionProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2003