How odd it is to realize that our genome contains the remnants of thousands of viruses
that infected our primate ancestors millions of years ago. These viral remnants, called
human endogenous retroviruses, or HERVs, make up approximately 8% of our genome. We
are aware of the contemporary exogenous retroviruses that cause acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (AIDS) and other diseases, and it is likely that some of the ancient HERVs
were just as lethal in our ancestors when they first infected them.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
October 8,
2008
Received in revised form:
October 7,
2008
Received:
October 2,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
