Eh, the relief of the musculature…
Retroviral genes in someone else's genome may be responsible for gaining muscle mass
A group of French geneticists found out that some of the viral genes embedded in human DNA many years ago may be responsible for gaining muscle mass in males. Although the study was conducted on mice, its results may be valid for other mammals, including humans.
Up to 8% of the mammalian genome consists of the DNA of retroviruses that were once embedded in The DNA of our ancestors, and then began to be inherited along with the host genes. Retroviruses are a family of viruses that use RNA to transfer and store genetic information and are able to integrate into the genome of an infected cell. As a rule, viral genes are "silent" in the DNA of another organism, but some of them continue to synthesize proteins and affect the vital activity of the host organism.
In the new work, scientists analyzed how one of the groups of such proteins – syncytins – affects the development of mice. Earlier, the same research group showed that the activity of syncytins is associated with the development of the placenta. Proteins got their name for the fact that they play an important role in the formation of syncytium – a type of tissue in which the cytoplasm of many cells is combined into one "cell." Such tissue is present in the placenta. Since muscle tissue is also formed by the fusion of many stem cells – myoblasts, scientists have suggested that syncytins can also affect its growth.
For experiments, geneticists used laboratory mice with "switched off" genes encoding syncytins. It turned out that without syncytins, the muscle mass of males decreases by 20%, the average area of muscle fibers decreases and muscle tissues recover worse after damage.
Figure from the CNRS Placenta in females press release, muscle mass in males: the dual heritage of a virus – VM.
No such effect was observed in females. The discovery of scientists may explain sexual dimorphism – the difference in the appearance of males and females, due to the fact that different sexes have different muscle relief.
An article by a group of scientists from France was published in the journal PLOS Genetics (Redelsperger et al., Genetic Evidence That Captured Retroviral Envelope syncytinsContribute to Myoblast Fusion and Muscle Sexual Dimorphism in Mice).
The most well–known and studied retrovirus is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Because of its ability to integrate into the human genome, until recently, HIV infection was considered incurable. However, thanks to the technology of genetic editing, scientists have learned to reduce the number of copies of the virus in the patient's body and even figured out how to completely cleanse the body of viral DNA in the future.
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08.09.2016