Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,234 studies31 sourcesUpdated 17 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BYViruses

Structural Insights into Endogenous Retroviruses: Evolution and Co-Opted Functions.

  • Cheng-An Lyu1,2
  • Emma F Harding3
  • Zhaobo Zhang2,3
  • Yao Shen2
  • Aris Katzourakis3
  • Peijun Zhang1,2,4
4 affiliations
  1. 1Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
  2. 2Division of Structural Biology, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
  3. 3Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3EL, UK.
  4. 4Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK.
Read full textPDFDOICite

Abstract

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are the molecular remnants of ancient retroviral infections and constitute a substantial fraction of many vertebrate genomes. Although most ERV loci have lost coding capacity and are epigenetically silenced, some remain biologically relevant because they have been co-opted for host physiology. Recent advances in structural biology are beginning to clarify how these elements have evolved from infectious retroviruses into genomic components with diverse molecular and cellular functions. In this review, we organise current structural insights by retroviral functional modules: group-specific antigen (Gag), polymerase (Pol) and envelope (Env). In the Gag section, we describe capsid-related assemblies of human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K), including mature-like CA assemblies reconstituted in vitro and immature lattices resolved in intact virus-like particles, as well as structural studies of the endogenous lentiviruses RELIK and PSIV. In the Pol section, we discuss HERV-K reverse transcriptase, biochemical studies of protease, and emerging structural evidence for integrase. In the Env section, we review prefusion and postfusion structures of HERV-K Env and receptor-bound structures of domesticated Env proteins, including syncytin-1, syncytin-2 and suppressyn. Together, these studies show how structural approaches can connect ERV evolution with molecular function, while also defining major unresolved questions regarding conformational dynamics, host interactions, and physiological relevance.

Related

  1. HIF1A recruits primate-specific endogenous retroviruses into the human hypoxic and immune responses
    U. Cakir, F. Mantovani, S. Y. Abadi +7
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textGenetics & genomicsbioRxiv
  2. Genome-wide identification and comparative analysis of endogenous retroviruses across five breed-representative pig assemblies.
    Xiaotong Zhao, Yongping Hu, Zhidong Zhang +2
    BMC genomicsPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDFull textPlant biologyEurope PMCDOAJ
  3. Structural characterization the LlaI anti-phage defense system reveals insights into the evolution of nucleotide specificity and the organization of DNA binding in McrBC restriction complexes
    A. Q. Bui, C. J. Hosford, Y. Niu +4
    bioRxivPreprintAll rights reservedFull textEcologybioRxiv
  4. Human-specific remodeling of an endogenous retrovirus shapes structural diversity at acrocentric nucleolar organizer regions
    M. WASEEM, A. Datta, A. Imtiaz +2
    bioRxivPreprintCC BYFull textGenetics & genomicsbioRxiv
  5. Structural and functional analysis of the cerato-platanin-like effector protein Cpl1 suggests diverging functions in smut fungi
    Felix Dempwolff, Wieland Steinchen, Sven-Andreas Freibert +5
    BioRxivPreprintLicence not statedStructural biologyGeneral biologyHAL

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{lyu2026structural,
  title = {{Structural Insights into Endogenous Retroviruses: Evolution and Co-Opted Functions.}},
  author = {Cheng-An Lyu and Emma F Harding and Zhaobo Zhang and Yao Shen and Aris Katzourakis and Peijun Zhang},
  journal = {Viruses},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3390/v18101132},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42944052},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Structural Insights into Endogenous Retroviruses: Evolution and Co-Opted Functions.
AU  - Cheng-An Lyu
AU  - Emma F Harding
AU  - Zhaobo Zhang
AU  - Yao Shen
AU  - Aris Katzourakis
AU  - Peijun Zhang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/13
JO  - Viruses
DO  - 10.3390/v18101132
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42944052
AB  - Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are the molecular remnants of ancient retroviral infections and constitute a substantial fraction of many vertebrate genomes. Although most ERV loci have lost coding capacity and are epigenetically silenced, some remain biologically relevant because they have been co-opted for host physiology. Recent advances in structural biology are beginning to clarify how these elements have evolved from infectious retroviruses into genomic components with diverse molecular and cellular functions. In this review, we organise current structural insights by retroviral functional modules: group-specific antigen (Gag), polymerase (Pol) and envelope (Env). In the Gag section, we describe capsid-related assemblies of human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K), including mature-like CA assemblies reconstituted in vitro and immature lattices resolved in intact virus-like particles, as well as structural studies of the endogenous lentiviruses RELIK and PSIV. In the Pol section, we discuss HERV-K reverse transcriptase, biochemical studies of protease, and emerging structural evidence for integrase. In the Env section, we review prefusion and postfusion structures of HERV-K Env and receptor-bound structures of domesticated Env proteins, including syncytin-1, syncytin-2 and suppressyn. Together, these studies show how structural approaches can connect ERV evolution with molecular function, while also defining major unresolved questions regarding conformational dynamics, host interactions, and physiological relevance.
SN  - 1999-4915
ER  -