In my doctoral project, I studied the evolution of retroviruses and long-term interactions with their hosts. Retroviruses infect a broad range of species including possibly all vertebrates. They are unique in their ability to efficiently create endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) - viral copies integrated into the host genomes and consequently inherited by successive generations as usual genomic locus. ERVs represent a significant portion of vertebrate genomes and play an important role in a variety of cellular processes and pathologies; however, their sequences are still largely unexplored. The results of my work contributed to the uncovering of ancient evolutionary history of retroviruses. In this regard, I employed the ERV sequences, as they represent "genetic fossils" of viral infections that occurred throughout entire retroviral evolution. By discovery and analysis of ancient ERV lineages, I shed light on the deep history of retroviruses and revealed how the past infections shaped the evolution of vertebrate antiviral defense. In addition to the investigation of retroviral evolution, I also studied process of ongoing endogenization and fixation of newly emerged ERVs in a mammalian host population. In this part of my work, I focused on a unique model of ERV that have been recently invading mule deer genome.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:370885 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Hron, Tomáš |
| Contributors | Elleder, Daniel, Kejnovský, Eduard, Hirsch, Ivan |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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