Retrovirus in human evolution
Author: raj
Category: Science
Annals of Science: Darwin’s Surprise: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
The current edition of the New Yorker magazine has up a story about
endogenous retroviruses in the genomes of humans and other species.
Although researchers have known about such non-functional retroviral
‘fossils’ in the human genome for some time, the large amount of recent
genomic data underscores just how pervasive they are, in a compelling
tale that involves humans, their primate cousins, and a variety of
viral invaders. Some researchers are even bringing back non-functional
viral remnants from the dead by fixing their broken genes.