A cluster of antiviral genes in humans has likely battled retroviral invasions for millions of years. New research now finds that in addition to the previously identified TRIM5 gene that can defend ...

Ancient viral fossils buried in our DNA are offering fresh clues about how today’s respiratory pathogens infect and spread.

The possibility that retroviruses play a role in multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been considered; accumulating findings suggest this to be most likely in the form of human endogenous retroviruses ...

A researcher has identified a gene that controls the process by which antibodies gain their ability to combat retroviruses. He has shown that the gene TLR7 allows the antibody generating B cells to ...

Scientists from the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU Boulder), have published new research in Science Advances that shows that endogenous retroviruses (ERVs)—“junk DNA”—in the genome can play a ...

The retroviral family is described, and an overview of the retroviral life cycle, the genetic organization and a brief description of the process of translation initiation in Eucaryotes is provided.

Researchers report February 15 in the journal Cell that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin—and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic ...

Endogenous retroviruses are remnants of ancient viral infections that have integrated into the germline DNA of their hosts, becoming a permanent part of the host genome. These viral sequences, once ...

Retroviruses probably evolved roughly half a billion years ago, making this medically and economically important group of viruses five times older than scientists previously thought. The finding, ...

Retroviruses are viruses that have evolved the ability to write their genetic code into a cell's own DNA. The most ancient ...

A researcher at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer research has identified a gene that controls the process by which antibodies gain their ability to combat retroviruses. Edward Browne shows ...