Retrovirology
Volume 3
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  ReviewThe discovery of endogenous retrovirusesRobin A Weiss  Division of Infection & Immunity, University College London, 46 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JF, UK  author email corresponding author email
Retrovirology 2006,
3:67doi:10.1186/1742-4690-3-67
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| Published: |
3 October 2006 |
Abstract
When endogenous retroviruses (ERV) were discovered in the late 1960s, the Mendelian inheritance of retroviral genomes by their hosts was an entirely new concept. Indeed Howard M Temin's DNA provirus hypothesis enunciated in 1964 was not generally accepted, and reverse transcriptase was yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, the evidence that we accrued in the pre-molecular era has stood the test of time, and our hypothesis on ERV, which one reviewer described as 'impossible', proved to be correct. Here I recount some of the key observations in birds and mammals that led to the discovery of ERV, and comment on their evolution, cross-species dispersion, and what remains to be elucidated. | 
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