PLB - Where did this discovery lead to?

Presumably the integration (transgenesis) reported in the original Maori paper was a chance event where the IAPV sequences entered the germ line*. IAPV is reported to be vertically transmitted (e.g. Chen et al., http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004261). In contrast, the transgenesis reported in the excellent studies by Carla Saleh show non-heritable integration for immune-protection. What's interesting to me is why we don't see evidence of other viruses that are vertically-transmitted becoming integrated ... is this because the selection pressure isn't strong enough as these are generally persistent/asymptomatic infections?

* as an aside, to say this integration was "non-retroviral" seems likely incorrect ... I bet the reverse-transcription was mediated by endogenous retroviruses in much the same way as Saleh et al., showed ...

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html