Description:
Roughly 8% of the human genome consists of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs). They are believed to be remnants of ancient retroviral infections of the germline that were passed on from one generation to the next over millions of years. While initially regarded as „junk DNA“, it has become increasingly clear that HERV elements exert defined functions in their hosts. In 2011, our group reported the discovery of an isoform of the tumor suppressor p63 that is expressed under the control of a long terminal repeat (LTR) of the endogenous retrovirus family 9 (termed LTR12). Due to its expressi...