Baby's best Foe-riend: Endogenous retroviruses and the evolution of eutherian reproduction

AbstractColorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most lethal malignancies. The extreme heterogeneity in survival rate is driving the need for new prognostic biomarkers. Human endogenous retroviruses (hERVs) have been suggested to influence tumor progression, oncogenesis and elicit an immune response. We examined multiple next-generation sequencing (NGS)-derived biomarkers in 114 CRC patients with paired whole-exome and whole-transcriptome sequencing (WES and WTS, respectively). First, we demonstrate that the median expression of hERVs can serve as a potential biomarker for prognosis, relapse, and resistance to chemotherapy in stage II and III CRC. We show that hERV expression and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T-lymphocytes (TILs) synergistically stratify overall and relapse-free survival (OS and RFS): the median OS of the CD8-/hERV+ subgroup was 29.8 months compared with 37.5 months for other subgroups (HR = 4.4, log-rank P < 0.001). Combing NGS-based biomarkers (hERV/CD8 status) with clinicopathological factors provided a better prediction of patient survival compared to clinicopathological factors alone. Moreover, we explored the association between genomic and transcriptomic features of tumors with high hERV expression and establish this subtype as distinct from previously described consensus molecular subtypes of CRC. Overall, our results underscore a previously unknown role for hERVs in leading to a more aggressive subtype of CRC.

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PCIP-seq: simultaneous sequencing of integrated viral genomes and their insertion sites with long reads

Genome Biology ◽

10.1186/s13059-021-02307-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Maria Artesi ◽

Vincent Hahaut ◽

Basiel Cole ◽

Laurens Lambrechts ◽

Fereshteh Ashrafi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Viral Genome ◽

Clonal Expansion ◽

Endogenous Retroviruses ◽

Viral Genomes ◽

Short Read Sequencing ◽

Long Reads ◽

Infected Cells ◽

Insertion Sites ◽

Viral Insertion ◽

Hiv 1

AbstractThe integration of a viral genome into the host genome has a major impact on the trajectory of the infected cell. Integration location and variation within the associated viral genome can influence both clonal expansion and persistence of infected cells. Methods based on short-read sequencing can identify viral insertion sites, but the sequence of the viral genomes within remains unobserved. We develop PCIP-seq, a method that leverages long reads to identify insertion sites and sequence their associated viral genome. We apply the technique to exogenous retroviruses HTLV-1, BLV, and HIV-1, endogenous retroviruses, and human papillomavirus.

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Overexpression of endogenous retroviruses in children with celiac disease

European Journal of Pediatrics ◽

10.1007/s00431-021-04050-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pier-Angelo Tovo ◽

Anna Opramolla ◽

Antonio Pizzol ◽

Giulia Calosso ◽

Valentina Daprà ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Celiac Disease ◽

Endogenous Retroviruses

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Unexpected low expression of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) in porcine expanded potential stem cells (EPSCs)

Virus Research ◽

10.1016/j.virusres.2021.198295 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 198295

Author(s):

Luise Krüger ◽

Monika Nowak-Imialek ◽

Yannick Kristiansen ◽

Doris Herrmann ◽

Björn Petersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stem Cells ◽

Endogenous Retroviruses ◽

Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses ◽

Low Expression

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Comprehensive identification of transposable element insertions using multiple sequencing technologies

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-24041-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Chong Chu ◽

Rebeca Borges-Monroy ◽

Vinayak V. Viswanadham ◽

Soohyun Lee ◽

Heng Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Transposable Element ◽

Structure And Function ◽

Endogenous Retroviruses ◽

Whole Genome Sequencing Data ◽

Whole Genome ◽

Sequencing Data ◽

Short Read ◽

Sequencing Technologies ◽

Long Read ◽

And Function

AbstractTransposable elements (TEs) help shape the structure and function of the human genome. When inserted into some locations, TEs may disrupt gene regulation and cause diseases. Here, we present xTea (x-Transposable element analyzer), a tool for identifying TE insertions in whole-genome sequencing data. Whereas existing methods are mostly designed for short-read data, xTea can be applied to both short-read and long-read data. Our analysis shows that xTea outperforms other short read-based methods for both germline and somatic TE insertion discovery. With long-read data, we created a catalogue of polymorphic insertions with full assembly and annotation of insertional sequences for various types of retroelements, including pseudogenes and endogenous retroviruses. Notably, we find that individual genomes have an average of nine groups of full-length L1s in centromeres, suggesting that centromeres and other highly repetitive regions such as telomeres are a significant yet unexplored source of active L1s. xTea is available at https://github.com/parklab/xTea.

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