%0 Journal Article
%T A revised nomenclature for transcribed human endogenous retroviral loci
%A Jens Mayer
%A Jonas Blomberg
%A Ruth L Seal
%J Mobile DNA
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1759-8753-2-7
%X Here we present a revised nomenclature of transcribed human endogenous retroviral loci that sorts loci into groups based on Repbase classifications. Each symbol is of the format ERV + group symbol + unique number. Group symbols are based on a mixture of Repbase designations and well-supported symbols used in the literature. The presented guidelines will allow newly identified loci to be easily incorporated into the scheme.The naming system will be employed by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee for naming transcribed human ERV loci. We hope that the system will contribute to clarifying a certain aspect of a sometimes confusing nomenclature for human endogenous retroviruses. The presented system may also be employed for naming transcribed loci of human non-ERV repeat loci.Human endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are remnants of infections of former exogenous retroviruses. Proviruses formed by numerous distinct exogenous retroviruses in the germline genome could be inherited by subsequent generations. About 8% of the human genome consists of sequences that are potentially of retroviral origin [1] and are distributed in about 700,000 different loci. In addition to proviruses, these sequences include solitary long terminal repeats (LTRs), nonretroviral sequences flanked by LTRs that may not be directly derived from infectious retroviruses and sequences similar to LTRs. ERVs and related sequences are thus part of the repetitive portions of the human genome, which comprise about 45% of the human genome mass, including mobile DNA such as L1, Alu and SVA elements.Detailed analysis of the human genome sequence by wet-lab and bioinformatics approaches resulted in the definition of ERV groups, with the number depending on the methods used for defining groups: 31 groups were defined by Sperber et al. [2] and Blomberg et al. [3], 42 groups were defined by Mager and Medstrand [4], 30 groups were defined by Gifford and Tristem [5] and several hundred human ERV and LTR families were d
%U http://www.mobilednajournal.com/content/2/1/7