Endogenous Retroviruses and Human Evolution.pdfVIP

Comparative and Functional Genomics Comp Funct Genom 2002; 3: 494–498. Published online in Wiley InterScience (). DOI: 10.1002/cfg.216 Conference Review Endogenous retroviruses and human evolution Konstantin Khodosevich*, Yuri Lebedev and Eugene Sverdlov Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Science, 16/10 Miklukho-Maklaya, 117997 Moscow, Russia *Correspondence to: Abstract Konstantin Khodosevich, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute Humans share about 99% of their genomic DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos; thus, of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian the differences between these species are unlikely to be in gene content but could be Academy of Science, 16/10 caused by inherited changes in regulatory systems. Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) Miklukho-Maklaya, 117997 comprise ∼ 5% of the human genome. The LTRs of ERVs contain many regulatory Moscow, Russia. sequences, such as promoters, enhancers, polyadenylation signals and factor-binding E-mail: sites. Thus, they can influence the expression of nearby human genes. All known kosthob@humgen.siobc.ras.ru human-specific LTRs belong to the HERV-K (human ERV) family, the most active family in the human genome. It is likely that some of these ERVs could have integrated into regulatory regions of the human genome, and therefore could have had an impact on the expression of adjacent genes, which have consequently contributed to human evolution. This review discusses possible functional consequences of ERV integration in active coding regions. Copyright  2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Received: 4 September 2002 Keywords: human