Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 16, 1198-1207, Copyright © 1999 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
E Lerat and P Capy
Retroviruses and long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons share a common
structural organization. The main difference between these retroelements is
the presence of a functional envelope (env) gene in retroviruses, which is
absent or nonfunctional in LTR retrotransposons. Several similarities
between these two groups of retroelements have been detected for the
reverse transcriptase, gag, and integrase domains. Assuming that each of
these domains shares a common ancestral sequence, several hypotheses could
account for the emergence of retroviruses from LTR retrotransposons. In
this context, the positions of elements such as gypsy and the members of
the Ty3 subfamily are not clear, since they are classified as retroviruses
but phylogenetically they are assigned to the LTR retrotransposon group. We
compared the env gene products of these retroelements and identified two
similar motifs in retroviruses and LTR retrotransposons. These two regions
do not occur in the same order. If we assume that they are derived from the
same ancestral sequence, this could result from independent acquisition of
the various domains rather than the single acquisition of the whole env
gene. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the env gene was
reorganized after being acquired. Trees based on these regions show that
these two groups of elements are clearly distinguished. These trees are
similar to those obtained from reverse transcriptase or integrase. In trees
based on reverse transcriptase, the retroviruses with complete or partial
env genes can be distinguished from the other LTR retrotransposons.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Retrotransposons and retroviruses: analysis of the envelope gene
Laboratoire Populations, Genetique et Evolution, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
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