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SILENCED. "Transcription of HERV-K and other HERV elements is usually suppressed by epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation and heterochromatin-silencing by histone modifications. During tumorigenesis (and also, presumably, in other poorly understood situations) this epigenetic control can be partially or selectively weakened and particular retroviral promoters become able to vigorously activate the transcription of cellular genes." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2013.00246/full View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL HERV LTRs. "The vast majority of these HERV elements are presumably not infectious or functional, but there are numerous reports on the expression of endogenous retroviral transcripts in human tissues and cell lines, mostly of placental, embryonic, or neoplastic origin. This suggests that a considerable number of HERV LTRs have retained their transcriptional activity." http://jvi.asm.org/content/79/1/341.full View in LinkedIn

200 HERV LTR FAMILIES. "Recent evaluation of the human genome sequencing data revealed that about 9% of the human genome is comprised of elements with long terminal repeats (LTRs) (LTR retrotransposons) comprising over 200 families." https://lnkd.in/bNEJmbG View in LinkedIn

CODING HERVS. "Nearly all HERVs known at present integrated up to 100 million years ago. They retain the proviral structure of exogenous retroviruses. Inherited from generation to generation, a few of the HERVs have open reading frames (ORFs) that encode known or putative proteins, while others are highly mutated." https://lnkd.in/ecX7YXX View in LinkedIn

OBLIGATE INTEGRATION. "Retroviruses are unique amongst animal viruses in that integration occurs as an obligate step in replication. For all other animal viruses integration occurs anomalously, through interaction with cellular retroelements such as LINEs, or via non-homologous recombination with genomic DNA." https://lnkd.in/bBjWGE5 View in LinkedIn

CLEAVAGE COMPLEXITY. "Not only are there differences in the number and placement of the cleavage sites, but also the recognition sites are relatively diverse, and many retroviral proteins contain sequences that would appear to be suitable sites for cleavage by the corresponding retroviral protease that remain uncleaved." https://lnkd.in/eBisbvi View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this weekend on the subtle and ever-inventive molecular strategies of viruses and their hosts to act out their age-old relationships that range from benign to symbiotic to pathological. It is a glimpse of evolution's raw ingenuity engine, full of messy experiments that often lead to surprising outcomes. View in LinkedIn

SUGAR HIGH. "We could control influenza infection of mammalian cells by altering the level of glucose given to cells. Higher glucose concentrations induced a dose-specific increase in influenza infection." https://lnkd.in/enM5f-Y View in LinkedIn

APPEARANCE OF THE PLACENTA. "Over 120 million years ago, eutherian mammals appeared on the earth. Their appearance was dependent on the evolution of the placenta, which, by mediating nutrient and gas exchange between mother and fetus, serves the central role in bearing live offspring." https://lnkd.in/eN_bZTg View in LinkedIn

CHAIN REACTION. "One key event in the course of apoptosis is the disruption of mitochondrial membranes. As a result, cellular respiration stops forcing the cells into a compensation strategy to keep energetic status at a sufficiently high level. This results in an increased rate of glycolysis." http://www.biomedcentral.com/1752-0509/4/61 View in LinkedIn