Abstract
This article reviews the evolution of thinking about the role of retroviruses in Nature. The observations initially suggested that integrated retroviral genomes (retrogenomes) are bona fide cellular genes which can generate the genomes of viral particles. Today, on the basis of several kinds of observation, we recognize that retrogenomes derive from infection of early embryos. Retrogenomes do not perform any crucial role for the organism, except for staving off infection by some retroviruses. The biological significance of retroviruses is that of transposons. They are of a special kind, in which transposition is based on reverse transcription. This characteristic explains their biological effect, from inactivation of genes, to activation and transduction of genes. The cancer-inducing activity is in part related to their activation and transduction of oncogenes, and in part to other biological properties which are briefly discussed. Retrogenomes are in the cellular genome for their own persistence and reproduction. The biological significance of retrogenomes, as well as of other transposons using reverse transcription, is mostly evolutionary.
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Dulbecco, R. (1985). The Role of Retroviruses in Nature. In: Gallo, R.C., Stehelin, D., Varnier, O.E. (eds) International Symposium: Retroviruses and Human Pathology. Experimental Biology and Medicine, vol 11. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5008-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5008-1_3
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