Re: Final Solution of the Aquatic Question

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 16:07:48 GMT, "Rick Wagler" <taxidea3@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

>I think
>this Baboon marker virus thing can be put to
>rest.

Try this one:

PLoS Biol. 2005 Apr;3(4):e110. Epub 2005 Mar 1.
Lineage-specific expansions of retroviral insertions within the
genomes of African great apes but not humans and orangutans.

Yohn CT, Jiang Z, McGrath SD, Hayden KE, Khaitovich P, Johnson ME,
Eichler MY, McPherson JD, Zhao S, Paabo S, Eichler EE.

Department of Genetics, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Retroviral infections of the germline have the potential to
episodically alter gene function and genome structure during the
course of evolution. Horizontal transmissions between species have
been proposed, but little evidence exists for such events in the
human/great ape lineage of evolution. Based on analysis of finished
BAC chimpanzee genome sequence, we characterize a retroviral element
(Pan troglodytes endogenous retrovirus 1 [PTERV1]) that has become
integrated in the germline of African great ape and Old World monkey
species but is absent from humans and Asian ape genomes. We
unambiguously map 287 retroviral integration sites and determine that
approximately 95.8% of the insertions occur at non-orthologous regions
between closely related species. Phylogenetic analysis of the
endogenous retrovirus reveals that the gorilla and chimpanzee elements
share a monophyletic origin with a subset of the Old World monkey
retroviral elements, but that the average sequence divergence exceeds
neutral expectation for a strictly nuclear inherited DNA molecule.
Within the chimpanzee, there is a significant integration bias against
genes, with only 14 of these insertions mapping within intronic
regions. Six out of ten of these genes, for which there are expression
data, show significant differences in transcript expression between
human and chimpanzee. Our data are consistent with a retroviral
infection that bombarded the genomes of chimpanzees and gorillas
independently and concurrently, 3-4 million years ago. We speculate on
the potential impact of such recent events on the evolution of humans
and great apes.

--
Pauline Ross

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Final Solution of the Aquatic Question
    ... > genomes of African great apes but not humans and orangutans. ... > human/great ape lineage of evolution. ... > endogenous retrovirus reveals that the gorilla and chimpanzee elements ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Final Solution of the Aquatic Question
    ... Lineage-specific expansions of retroviral insertions within the genomes of African great apes but not humans and orangutans. ... endogenous retrovirus reveals that the gorilla and chimpanzee elements ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Final Solution of the Aquatic Question
    ... > genomes of African great apes but not humans and orangutans. ... > endogenous retrovirus reveals that the gorilla and chimpanzee elements ... effect on the populations of forest apes. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)