@article {310303,
	title = {Identification of an infectious progenitor for the multiple-copy HERV-K human endogenous retroelements.},
	journal = {Genome Res},
	volume = {16},
	year = {2006},
	month = {2006 Dec},
	pages = {1548-56},
	abstract = {<p>Human Endogenous Retroviruses are expected to be the remnants of ancestral infections of primates by active retroviruses that have thereafter been transmitted in a Mendelian fashion. Here, we derived in silico the sequence of the putative ancestral "progenitor" element of one of the most recently amplified family - the HERV-K family - and constructed it. This element, Phoenix, produces viral particles that disclose all of the structural and functional properties of a bona-fide retrovirus, can infect mammalian, including human, cells, and integrate with the exact signature of the presently found endogenous HERV-K progeny. We also show that this element amplifies via an extracellular pathway involving reinfection, at variance with the non-LTR-retrotransposons (LINEs, SINEs) or LTR-retrotransposons, thus recapitulating ex vivo the molecular events responsible for its dissemination in the host genomes. We also show that in vitro recombinations among present-day human HERV-K (also known as ERVK) loci can similarly generate functional HERV-K elements, indicating that human cells still have the potential to produce infectious retroviruses.</p>
},
	keywords = {Amino Acid Sequence, Amino Acid Substitution, Cell Line, Computational Biology, Consensus Sequence, Endogenous Retroviruses, Evolution, Molecular, Gene Amplification, Genome, Human, Humans, Mutagenesis, Insertional, Polymorphism, Genetic, Proviruses, Recombination, Genetic, Retroelements, Transfection, Virus Integration},
	issn = {1088-9051},
	doi = {10.1101/gr.5565706},
	author = {Dewannieux, Marie and Harper, Francis and Richaud, Aur{\'e}lien and Letzelter, Claire and Ribet, David and Pierron, G{\'e}rard and Heidmann, Thierry}
}
