Understanding the Impact of Endogenous Viral Elements on Genome Evolution

A substantial portion of vertebrate genomes (10-15%) are comprised from sequences of viral origins, termed endogenous viral elements (EVEs). Some EVE insertions have provided a useful source of pre-existing coding and regulatory sequences that were formerly employed for viral infection and replication, but in numerous instances have been co-opted for host cellular function. To date, EVE research has primarily focused on mammals, and little is known as to whether these "rules of life" determined in mammals, are applicable to all vertebrates.

We aim to characterise EVEs in another vertebrate class, amphibians, by screening for EVE presence and comparing how common and widespread EVEs are between 30 publicly available amphibian genomes. Additionally, we have access to unpublished genomes from three populations of one amphibian, the mountain chicken frog, to establish within population EVE diversity. As EVEs have been identified in several amphibians to date, we expect to find a considerable number of different EVE families through extensive screening, each represented by multiple loci, as observed in mammals. With a similar number of extant species to mammals, and comparable genome sizes, amphibians provide an ideal comparison to establish whether this pattern of information flow between virus and host holds throughout the Tree of Life.

This project addresses key areas of study for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) on "Understanding the Rules of Life", and "Data driven Biology". The project will provide a unique insight into understanding the ubiquity of EVEs and their widespread role in the genome evolution of vertebrates.