TY - JOUR
T1 - Structural and functional organization of the human endogenous retroviral ERV9 sequences
AU - Lania, Luigi
AU - Cristofano, Antonio Di
AU - Strazzullo, Maria
AU - Pengue, Gina
AU - Majello, Barbara
AU - Mantia, Girolama La
PY - 1992/11
Y1 - 1992/11
N2 - The human genome contains a variety of genetic elements similar in structure to retroviruses and retrotransposons. We report here the structural and functional organization of a novel human endogenous retroviral family (ERV9). Three polyadenylated RNAs, 8, 2, and 1.5 kb long, are detected by Northern blot in undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma NT2/D1 cells. Upon genomic cloning of an expressed ERV9 locus, we demonstrated that the three polyadenylated RNAs are originated by a single ERV9 locus by alternative usage of splicing and polyadenylation signals. DNA sequence analysis of different ERV9 LTRs have revealed that they are heterogeneous in length and that the length variability is due to the number of tandemly repeated subelements present in both U3 and U5 regions; moreover, the ERV9 LTRs are capable to drive expression of a reporter gene in transient expression assays. Finally, analysis of the ERV9 5′ transcription start site has allowed us to define the U3-R-U5 organization of the ERV9 LTR.
AB - The human genome contains a variety of genetic elements similar in structure to retroviruses and retrotransposons. We report here the structural and functional organization of a novel human endogenous retroviral family (ERV9). Three polyadenylated RNAs, 8, 2, and 1.5 kb long, are detected by Northern blot in undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma NT2/D1 cells. Upon genomic cloning of an expressed ERV9 locus, we demonstrated that the three polyadenylated RNAs are originated by a single ERV9 locus by alternative usage of splicing and polyadenylation signals. DNA sequence analysis of different ERV9 LTRs have revealed that they are heterogeneous in length and that the length variability is due to the number of tandemly repeated subelements present in both U3 and U5 regions; moreover, the ERV9 LTRs are capable to drive expression of a reporter gene in transient expression assays. Finally, analysis of the ERV9 5′ transcription start site has allowed us to define the U3-R-U5 organization of the ERV9 LTR.
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U2 - 10.1016/0042-6822(92)90211-7
DO - 10.1016/0042-6822(92)90211-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 1413518
AN - SCOPUS:0026787143
VL - 191
SP - 464
EP - 468
JO - Virology
JF - Virology
SN - 0042-6822
IS - 1
ER -