Molecular evolution of the HERV-E family in primates

Contemporary Distribution, Estimated Age, and Prehistoric Migrations of Old World Monkey Retroviruses

Old World monkeys (OWM), simians inhabiting Africa and Asia, are currently affected by at least four infectious retroviruses, namely, simian foamy virus (SFV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), simian T-lymphotropic virus (STLV), and simian type D retrovirus (SRV). OWM also show chromosomal evidence of having been infected in the past with four more retroviral species, baboon endogenous virus (BaEV), Papio cynocephalus endogenous virus (PcEV), simian endogenous retrovirus (SERV), and Rhesus endogenous retrovirus-K (RhERV-K/SERV-K1). For some of the viruses, transmission to other primates still occurs, resulting, for instance, in the HIV pandemic. Retroviruses are intimately connected with their host as they are normally spread by close contact. In this review, an attempt to reconstruct the distribution and history of OWM retroviruses will be made. A literature overview of the species infected by any of the eight retroviruses as well as an age estimation of the pathogens will be given. In addition, primate genomes from databases have been re-analyzed for the presence of endogenous retrovirus integrations. Results suggest that some of the oldest retroviruses, SERV and PcEV, have travelled with their hosts to Asia during the Miocene, when a higher global temperature allowed simian expansions. In contrast, younger viruses, such as SIV and SRV, probably due to the lack of a primate continuum between the continents in later times, have been restricted to Africa and Asia, respectively.

The contribution of HERV-E clone 4-1 and other HERV-E members to the pathogenesis of rheumatic autoimmune diseases

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERV)-E consist of a family of more than 1300 elements, stably integrated in the human genome. Some of them are full-length proviruses able to synthesize the viral proteins gag, pol and env. The reactivation of HERV-E elements has been associated to placentation, cancer and autoimmunity. In this narrative review, we aimed to report the status of the art concerning the involvement of HERV-E in rheumatic autoimmune diseases. Following a research on PubMed database, a total of 87 articles were selected. The highest amount of evidence derives from studies on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), whereas a few to no data are available on other immune-mediated diseases. In SLE, the hyper-expression of HERV-E clone 4-1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells or differentiated lymphocytes has been associated with disease activity and autoantibody production. It is likely that HERV-E take part to the pathogenesis of rheumatic autoimmune diseases but additional research is needed.

Identification and Expression Analyses of Equine Endogenous Retroviruses in Horses

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) have been integrated into vertebrate genomes and have momentously affected host organisms. Horses (Equus caballus) have been domesticated and selected for elite racing ability over centuries. ERVs played an important role in the evolutionary diversification of the horse genome. In the present study, we identified six equine ERV families (EqERVs-E1, I1, M2, P1, S1, and Y4), their full-length viral open reading frames (ORFs), and elucidated their phylogenetic relationships. The divergence time of EqERV families assuming an evolutionary rate of 0.2%/Myr indicated that EqERV-S3 (75.4 million years ago; mya) on chromosome 10 is an old EqERV family and EqERV-P5 (1.2 Mya) on chromosome 12 is a young member. During the evolutionary diversification of horses, the EqERV-I family diverged 1.7 Mya to 38.7 Mya. Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) amplification of EqERV pol genes showed greater expression in the cerebellum of the Jeju horse than the Thoroughbred horse. These results could contribute further dynamic studies for horse genome in relation to EqERV gene function.

Gene structure variation in segmental duplication block C of human chromosome 7q 11.23 during primate evolution

Segmental duplication, or low-copy repeat (LCR) event, occurs during primate evolution and is an important source of genomic diversity, including gain or loss of gene function. The human chromosome 7q 11.23 is related to the William-Beuren syndrome and contains large region-specific LCRs composed of blocks A, B, and C that have different copy numbers in humans and different primates. We analyzed the structure of POM121, NSUN5, FKBP6, and TRIM50 genes in the LCRs of block C. Based on computational analysis, POM121B created by a segmental duplication acquired a new exonic region, whereas NSUN5B (NSUN5C) showed structural variation by integration of HERV-K LTR after duplication from the original NSUN5 gene. The TRIM50 gene originally consists of seven exons, whereas the duplicated TRIM73 and TRIM74 genes present five exons because of homologous recombination-mediated deletion. In addition, independent duplication events of the FKBP6 gene generated two pseudogenes at different genomic locations. In summary, these clustered genes are created by segmental duplication, indicating that they show dynamic evolutionary events, leading to structure variation in the primate genome.

Human endogenous retrovirus group E and its involvement in diseases

Human endogenous retrovirus group E (HERV-E) elements are stably integrated into the human genome, transmitted vertically in a Mendelian manner, and are endowed with transcriptional activity as alternative promoters or enhancers. Such effects are under the control of the proviral long terminal repeats (LTR) that are organized into three HERV-E phylogenetic subgroups, namely LTR2, LTR2B, and LTR2C. Moreover, HERV-E expression is tissue-specific, and silenced by epigenetic constraints that may be disrupted in cancer, autoimmunity, and human placentation. Interest in HERV-E with regard to these conditions has been stimulated further by concerns regarding the capacity of HERV-E elements to modify the expression of neighboring genes and/or to produce retroviral proteins, including immunosuppressive env peptides, which in turn may induce (auto)-antibody (Ab) production. Finally, better understanding of HERV-E elements may have clinical applications for prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.

Evidence for the persistence of an active endogenous retrovirus (ERVE) in humans

Transposable elements (TEs) account for nearly half (44 %) of the human genome. However, their overall activity has been steadily declining over the past 35-50 million years, so that <0.05 % of TEs are presumably still "alive" (potentially transposable) in human populations. All the active elements are retrotransposons, either autonomous (LINE-1 and possibly the endogenous retrovirus ERVK), or non-autonomous (Alu and SVA, whose transposition is dependent on the LINE-1 enzymatic machinery). Here we show that a lineage of the endogenous retrovirus ERVE was recently engaged in ectopic recombination events and may have at least one potentially fully functional representative, initially reported as a novel retrovirus isolated from blood cells of a Chinese patient with chronic myeloid leukemia, which bears signals of positive selection on its envelope region. Altogether, there is strong evidence that ERVE should be included in the short list of potentially active TEs, and we give clues on how to identify human specific insertions of this element that are likely to be segregating in some of our populations.

Evolution of TRIM5alpha B30.2 (SPRY) domain in New World primates

The tripartite motif 5 protein (TRIM5) has been extensively studied in view of its ability to restrict retroviruses in mammalian hosts. The B30.2 domain, encoded by exon 8 of TRIM5, contains the major restriction determinants. We have analyzed the genetic diversity of the TRIM5 B30.2 domain in a wide range of New World primates (NWP). The TRIM5 region encoding the B30.2 domain of 35 animals, representing all NWP families and 10 genera, was PCR-amplified, sequenced and analyzed at the amino acid level. Comparisons were carried out with available GenBank data; analyses were carried out with a dataset of 44 representative sequences of 32 NWP species and 15 genera, with a human B30.2 sequence as outgroup. A high genetic diversity was observed, both with respect to length and amino acid substitutions, mainly at the three variable regions of this domain associated with the restriction phenotype. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on B30.2 DNA differed from the consensus NWP topology due to positive selection along different lineages and definite codon positions, with robust evidence either with a complete or a pruned dataset. This was especially evident in codons 406 and 496, consistently demonstrated with all methods. Positive selection was virtually absent in all NWP species when analyzing intra-specific polymorphisms except for Saguinus labiatus. Our findings indicated that NWP TRIM5 proteins have been subjected to selection, probably by retroviruses and/or retroelements. We anticipate that the diversity of NWP TRIM5 is indicative of disparate retroviral restriction phenotypes representing a plentiful source of factors countering HIV infection.

Stepwise evolution of two giant composite LTR-retrotransposon-like elements DA and Xiao

Background

We recently discovered two composite long terminal repeat (LTR)-retrotransposon-like elements which we named DA (~300 kb) and Xiao (~30 kb), meaning big and small in Chinese respectively. Xiao and DA (three types of DA identified) were found to have been derived from several donor sites and have spread to 30 loci in the human genome, totaling to 5 Mb. Our bioinformatics analyses with the released human, chimp, rhesus macaque, orangutan, and marmoset genomic sequences indicate that DA and Xiao emerged ~25 million years (Myr) ago.

Results

To better understand the evolution of these two complex elements, we investigated various internal junctions of DA and Xiao as well as orthologous genomic sites of the 30 DA/Xiao loci in non-human primates including great apes, lesser apes, Old World monkeys, New World monkeys, and a prosimian. We found that Xiao and type I DA first emerged in the genome between 25 and 18 Myr ago, whereas type II and Type III DAs emerged between 14 and 7 Myr ago. Xiao and DA were most active in great apes, with their amplification peaking during 25-14 and 14-7 Myr ago, respectively. Neither DA nor Xiao seem to have been active in the human and chimp genomes during last 6 Myr.

Conclusion

The study has led to a more accurate age determination of the DA and Xiao elements than our previous bioinformatics analyses, and indicates that the amplification activity of the elements coincided with that of group I HERV-Es during evolution. It has also illustrated an evolutionary path with stepwise structural changes for the elements during past 25 Myr, and in doing so has shed more light on these two intriguing and complex elements that have reshaped our genome.

Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis of the Human Endogenous Retrovirus E (HERV-E) Family in Human Tissues and Human Cancers

The human genome is estimated to contain up to 50 copies of full-length and truncated members of HERV-E family. They are thought to be involved in human gene transcription. Here we examine the expression pattern and phylogenetic relationships of the HERV-E in diverse human tissues and cancer cells using RT-PCR amplification and bioinformatic tools. The env gene was expressed in many human tissues (brain, prostate, testis, kidney, placenta, spleen, thymus and uterus) but not in heart, liver, lung and skeletal muscle, importantly, HERV-E expression was detected in all cancer cell lines examined (RT4, PFSK-1, BT-474, HCT-116, TE-1, UO-31, Jurkat, HepG2, A549, MCF7, OVCAR-3, MIA-PaCa-2, PC3, LOX-IMVI, AZ521, 2F7, U-937 and C-33A), suggesting that HERV-E family are expressed corresponding to the transcriptional program of human tissues and human cancer cells. Phylogenetic analysis of HERV-E env family from human tissues, cancer cells and our previous data identify two groups (I and II) through evolutionary divergence. Taken together, HERV-E family expression in human tissues and human cancer cells exhibited close relationships of the env gene sequences across human chromosomes. These active HERV-E elements deserve further investigation as potential pathogenic factors in human diseases such as cancers.