Ribosomal profiling of human endogenous retroviruses in healthy tissues.

TitleRibosomal profiling of human endogenous retroviruses in healthy tissues.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2024
AuthorsDopkins N, Singh B, Michael S, Zhang P, Marston JL, Fei T, Singh M, Feschotte C, Collins N, Bendall ML, Nixon DF
JournalBMC Genomics
Volume25
Issue1
Pagination5
Date Published2024 Jan 02
ISSN1471-2164
KeywordsEndogenous Retroviruses, Humans, Ribosomes
Abstract

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are the germline embedded proviral fragments of ancient retroviral infections that make up roughly 8% of the human genome. Our understanding of HERVs in physiology primarily surrounds their non-coding functions, while their protein coding capacity remains virtually uncharacterized. Therefore, we applied the bioinformatic pipeline "hervQuant" to high-resolution ribosomal profiling of healthy tissues to provide a comprehensive overview of translationally active HERVs. We find that HERVs account for 0.1-0.4% of all translation in distinct tissue-specific profiles. Collectively, our study further supports claims that HERVs are actively translated throughout healthy tissues to provide sequences of retroviral origin to the human proteome.

DOI10.1186/s12864-023-09909-x
Alternate JournalBMC Genomics
PubMed ID38166631
PubMed Central IDPMC10759522
Grant ListR35 GM122550 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States

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