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Entire female reproductive tract susceptible to HIV infection in macaque model
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The presence of retroviral infection in the ovary also offers a possible solution to a long-standing mystery, namely how retroviruses can enter the human genome. The decoding of the genome revealed that retroviruses have infected our ancestors repeatedly over evolutionary time, including as recently as 100,000 years ago. Retroviruses are also present in the genomes of all other animal species. To be passed on to the next generation, the retroviruses have to infect germ cells (egg, sperm, or their cellular precursors). Michael Emerman, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, USA, who studies the evolution of the human-retrovirus interaction, and was not involved in the study, commented, "The proof that retroviruses entered into the genome of humans repeatedly in the past is present in every cell in the body of every human. The ability of virus introduced into the vaginal tract to infect cells in the ovary reveals one possible mechanism of how retroviruses could have entered the germ lines of human ancestors".
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The presence of retroviral infection in the ovary also offers a possible solution to a long-standing mystery, namely how retroviruses can enter the human genome. The decoding of the genome revealed that retroviruses have infected our ancestors repeatedly over evolutionary time, including as recently as 100,000 years ago. Retroviruses are also present in the genomes of all other animal species. To be passed on to the next generation, the retroviruses have to infect germ cells (egg, sperm, or their cellular precursors). Michael Emerman, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, USA, who studies the evolution of the human-retrovirus interaction, and was not involved in the study, commented, "The proof that retroviruses entered into the genome of humans repeatedly in the past is present in every cell in the body of every human. The ability of virus introduced into the vaginal tract to infect cells in the ovary reveals one possible mechanism of how retroviruses could have entered the germ lines of human ancestors".