Journal of Life Science
- Volume 10 Issue 2
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- Pages.45-49
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- 2000
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- 1229-1552(pISSN)
Long Terminal Repeat of an Endogenous Retrovirus HERV-K Family from Human Liver and Kidney cDNA
-
Kim, Heui-Soo
(Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University)
;
- Choi, Joo-Young (Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University) ;
- Lee, Joo-Mi (Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University) ;
- Jeon, Seung-Heui (Division of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Resoures and Life Science, Dong-A University) ;
- Lee, Young-Choon (Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University) ;
-
Lee, Won-Ho
(Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University)
;
- Jang, Kyung-Lib (Division of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University)
- Published : 2000.12.01
Abstract
Long terminal repeat (LTR) of human endogenous retrovirus K family (HERV-K) has been found to be coexpressed with sequences of closely located genes. We examined the transcribed HERV-K LTR elements in human liver and kidney tissues. Using the cDNA synthesized from mRNA of human liver and kidney, we performed PCR amplification and identified six HERV-K LTR elements. Those LTR elements showed a high degree of sequence similarity (93.3∼96.6%) with human-specific LTR. A phylogenetic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining method revealed that HERV-K LTR elements (Liv-1, 2, 3 and Kid-1, 2, 3) were belonged to group I. Our data suggests that HERV-K LTR elements are active on human liver and kidney tissues and may represent a source of genetic variation connected to human disease.