Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2010 Jan 12:8:2.
doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-2.

Taming of the shrewd: novel eukaryotic genes from RNA viruses

Eugene V Koonin  1
Affiliations
Editorial

Taming of the shrewd: novel eukaryotic genes from RNA viruses

Eugene V Koonin. BMC Biol. .

Abstract

Genomes of several yeast species contain integrated DNA copies of complete genomes or individual genes of non-retroviral double-strand RNA viruses as reported in a recent BMC Biology article by Taylor and Bruenn. The integrated virus-specific sequences are at least partially expressed and seem to evolve under pressure of purifying selection, indicating that these are functional genes. Together with similar reports on integrated copies of some animal RNA viruses, these results suggest that integration of DNA copies of non-reverse-transcribing RNA viruses might be much more common than previously thought. The integrated copies could contribute to acquired immunity to the respective viruses.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Taylor DJ, Bruenn J. The evolution of novel fungal genes from nonretroviral. RNA viruses. BMC Biology. 2009;7:88. doi: 10.1186/1741-7007-7-88. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Goodier JL, Kazazian HH Jr. Retrotransposons revisited: the restraint and rehabilitation of parasites. Cell. 2008;135:23–35. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.09.022. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baucom RS, Estill JC, Chaparro C, Upshaw N, Jogi A, Deragon JM, Westerman RP, Sanmiguel PJ, Bennetzen JL. Exceptional diversity, non-random distribution, and rapid evolution of retroelements in the B73 maize genome. PLoS Genet. 2009;5:e1000732. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000732. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Daboussi MJ, Capy P. Transposable elements in filamentous fungi. Annu Rev Microbiol. 2003;57:275–299. doi: 10.1146/annurev.micro.57.030502.091029. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhdanov VM. Integration of viral genomes. Nature. 1975;256:471–473. doi: 10.1038/256471a0. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources