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Genome-wide amplification of proviral sequences reveals new polymorphic HERV-K(HML-2) proviruses in humans and chimpanzees that are absent from genome assemblies

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posted on 2015-08-03, 11:26 authored by Catriona M. Macfarlane, Richard M. Badge
BACKGROUND: To date, the human population census of proviruses of the Betaretrovirus-like human endogenous retroviral (HERV-K) (HML-2) family has been compiled from a limited number of complete genomes, making it certain that rare polymorphic loci are under-represented and are yet to be described. RESULTS: Here we describe a suppression PCR-based method called genome-wide amplification of proviral sequences (GAPS) that selectively amplifies DNA fragments containing the termini of HERV-K(HML-2) proviral sequences and their flanking genomic sequences. We analysed the HERV-K(HML-2) proviral content of 101 unrelated humans, 4 common chimpanzees and three centre d'etude du polymorphisme humain (CEPH) pedigrees (44 individuals). The technique isolated HERV-K(HML-2) proviruses that had integrated in the genomes of the great apes throughout their divergence and included evolutionarily young elements still unfixed for presence/absence. CONCLUSIONS: By examining the HERV-K(HML-2) proviral content of 145 humans we detected a new insertionally polymorphic Type I HERV-K(HML-2) provirus. We also observed provirus versus solo long terminal repeat (LTR) polymorphism within humans at a previously unreported, but ancient, locus. Finally, we report two novel chimpanzee specific proviruses, one of which is dimorphic for a provirus versus solo LTR. Thus GAPS enables the isolation of uncharacterised HERV-K(HML-2) proviral sequences and provides a direct means to assess inter-individual genetic variation associated with HERV-K(HML-2) proviruses.

History

Citation

Retrovirology, 2015, 12, 35

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND PSYCHOLOGY/School of Biological Sciences/Department of Genetics

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  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Retrovirology

Publisher

BioMed Central

eissn

1742-4690

Acceptance date

2015-03-30

Copyright date

2015

Available date

2015-08-03

Publisher version

http://www.retrovirology.com/content/12/1/35

Language

en

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