Do orthologous endogenous retroviruses exhibit directional selection since the chimp-human split?
ERVs differ from other selfish DNA in the extent to which they diverge and appear to have measurable effects on hosts, even after fixation. The effects are strongest for HERV-H and suggest that the HERV-H transcriptome has recently evolved under the influence of directional selection. As there are many HERV-H loci distributed across the ape lineage, our results suggest that in future this family can be used to model the evolutionary consequences of ERV exaptation in primates and other mammals.
Higher serum VAP-1 and CKD can independently predict future development of cancers in type II diabetic subjects.