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KEY GENES. "HIV belongs to a class of viruses called retroviruses. They all share three genes in common. One, called gag, gives rise to the inner shell where the virus’s genes are stored. Another, called env, makes knobs on the outer surface of the virus, that allow it to latch onto cells and invade them. And a third, called pol, makes an enzyme that inserts the virus’s genes into its host cell’s DNA." https://lnkd.in/b3zUsU5 View in LinkedIn

RETRO SIMPLICITY. "The viral genes gag, pro, pol, and env occupy the body of the DNA. Indeed, for many retroviruses, these are the only genes." https://lnkd.in/eU8gmtJ View in LinkedIn

RARE VIRAL GROUP. "In eukaryotes, retroviruses, which can integrate into host genome as an obligate step in their replication strategy, comprise approximately 8% of the human genome. Unlike retroviruses, few members of other virus families are known to transfer genes to host genomes." http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/11/276/ View in LinkedIn

INFECTIOUS RETROVIRUSES. "In contrast to humans, several other species including mice and sheep carry infectious endogenous retroviruses" http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2013.00246/full View in LinkedIn

OUTNUMBERED. "With more than 500,000 elements, there are over 20-fold more HERV sequences than there are human genes." https://lnkd.in/eYf5f2J View in LinkedIn

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A RETROVIRUS is "a virus that is composed not of DNA but of RNA. Retroviruses have an enzyme, called reverse transcriptase, that gives them the unique property of transcribing their RNA into DNA after entering a cell. The retroviral DNA can then integrate into the chromosomal DNA of the host cell, to be expressed there. HIV is a retrovirus." https://lnkd.in/eGM2VGa View in LinkedIn

SHOT THROUGH. "Post-insertional recombinations, deletions, and mutations have rendered all known human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) non-infectious. However some, particularly the most recently acquired proviruses of the HERV-K(HML-2) family, can expresses viral proteins and produce viral particles." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2013.00246/full View in LinkedIn

PROMOTOR NEEDED. "Retroviruses carry their genome as RNA, and because they replicate via a DNA intermediate, they must also carry the sequence for the promoter that will drive the expression of the genomic RNA." https://lnkd.in/eU8gmtJ View in LinkedIn

RIDDLED WITH MUTATIONS. "Because of their relatively long residence in the genome, the majority of HERV elements are riddled with deleterious mutations, large deletions, and insertions of other repetitive elements." https://lnkd.in/eW3mbzE View in LinkedIn