TY - JOUR AU - Li, Fang AU - Nellåker, Christoffer AU - Yolken, Robert H. AU - Karlsson, Håkan PY - 2011 DA - 2011/01/12 TI - A systematic evaluation of expression of HERV-W elements; influence of genomic context, viral structure and orientation JO - BMC Genomics SP - 22 VL - 12 IS - 1 AB - One member of the W family of human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) appears to have been functionally adopted by the human host. Nevertheless, a highly diversified and regulated transcription from a range of HERV-W elements has been observed in human tissues and cells. Aberrant expression of members of this family has also been associated with human disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and schizophrenia. It is not known whether this broad expression of HERV-W elements represents transcriptional leakage or specific transcription initiated from the retroviral promoter in the long terminal repeat (LTR) region. Therefore, potential influences of genomic context, structure and orientation on the expression levels of individual HERV-W elements in normal human tissues were systematically investigated. SN - 1471-2164 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-12-22 DO - 10.1186/1471-2164-12-22 ID - Li2011 ER -