Biology:ERV3

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Short description: Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens


A representation of the 3D structure of the protein myoglobin showing turquoise α-helices.
Generic protein structure example

HERV-R_7q21.2 provirus ancestral envelope (Env) polyprotein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ERV3 gene.[1][2][3]

Function

The human genome includes many retroelements including the human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), which compose about 7-8% of the human genome.[4] ERV3, one of the most studied HERVs, is thought to have integrated 30 to 40 million years ago and is present in higher primates with the exception of gorillas. Taken together, the observation of genome conservation, the detection of transcript expression, and the presence of conserved ORFs is circumstantial evidence for a functional role. Similar endogenous retroviral Env genes like syncytin-1 have important roles in placental formation and embryonic development by enabling cell-cell fusion.[5][6] Despite its origin as an Env gene, ERV3 has a premature stop codon that precludes any cell-cell fusion functionality.[7] However, it does have an immunosuppressive function that helps the fetus evade a damaging maternal immune response, which may explain its high expression in the placenta.[8]

There is speculation that ERV3 originally did have cell-cell fusion functionality in the placenta, but that it was eventually supplanted by other Env genes like syncytin, leading to a loss of this function.[9]

Another functional role is suggested by the observation that downregulation of ERV3 is reported in choriocarcinoma.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Human proviral mRNAs down regulated in choriocarcinoma encode a zinc finger protein related to Krüppel". Molecular and Cellular Biology 10 (8): 4401–5. August 1990. doi:10.1128/mcb.10.8.4401. PMID 2115127. 
  2. ↑ "ERV3, a full-length human endogenous provirus: chromosomal localization and evolutionary relationships". Virology 138 (2): 225–35. October 1984. doi:10.1016/0042-6822(84)90347-7. PMID 6495650. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Entrez Gene: ERV3 endogenous retroviral sequence 3 (includes zinc finger protein H-plk/HPF9)". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=2086. 
  4. ↑ "Effects of retroviruses on host genome function". Annual Review of Genetics 42 (1): 709–32. December 2008. doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.42.110807.091501. PMID 18694346. 
  5. ↑ "Syncytin-2 plays an important role in the fusion of human trophoblast cells". Journal of Molecular Biology 392 (2): 301–18. September 2009. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2009.07.025. PMID 19616006. 
  6. ↑ "The endogenous retroviral locus ERVWE1 is a bona fide gene involved in hominoid placental physiology". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (6): 1731–6. February 2004. doi:10.1073/pnas.0305763101. PMID 14757826. Bibcode: 2004PNAS..101.1731M. 
  7. ↑ "Physiological knockout of the envelope gene of the single-copy ERV-3 human endogenous retrovirus in a fraction of the Caucasian population". Journal of Virology 72 (4): 3442–5. April 1998. doi:10.1128/JVI.72.4.3442-3445.1998. PMID 9525678. 
  8. ↑ "Placental syncytins: Genetic disjunction between the fusogenic and immunosuppressive activity of retroviral envelope proteins". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 (51): 20534–9. December 2007. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707873105. PMID 18077339. Bibcode: 2007PNAS..10420534M. 
  9. ↑ "Retroviruses facilitate the rapid evolution of the mammalian placenta". BioEssays 35 (10): 853–61. October 2013. doi:10.1002/bies.201300059. PMID 23873343. 

Further reading

External links

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.



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