About 8% of our genomes consist of DNA from ancient, dormant endogenous retroviruses; infectious cells that may have once plagued our ancestors. Scientists have recently discovered that these viruses do eventually "wake up", and at a critical time during embryonic development. One of the major proteins involved in maintaining undifferentiated cells during early development is Oct4, and it does so by latching on to DNA and turing genes on or off. One commonly targeted gene is that of the retrovirus HERV-K, and when it attaches it tells HERV-K to synthesize its viral RNA. Although it may seem scary to have these viral cells re-emerge, they don't seem to be infectious, and in fact play a key role in the development of the embryo. It was found that after this viral RNA synthesis occurs, the embryonic cell builds proteins to help ward off other infectious viruses. The viral RNA even aids as a transporter, bringing embryonic RNA to be translated into proteins.
Human development is already an unbelievably complex and amazing process, having one embryonic cell transform into such a complex life form. I found this discovery pretty baffling, knowing that the remnants of ancient viruses live in us and actually aid our development. I hope they look into this further and find out what is really going on within the embryo, and what other potential affects these retroviral RNA could have.
primary article- NYTimes
secondary article- Genomebiology
No comments:
Post a Comment