• DOI:10.1038/35001608
• Corpus ID: 4367889

Syncytin is a captive retroviral envelope protein involved in human placental morphogenesis

@article{Mi2000SyncytinIA,
  title={Syncytin is a captive retroviral envelope protein involved in human placental morphogenesis},
  author={Sha Mi and Xinhua Lee and Xiangping Li and G. M. Veldman and Heather F. Finnerty and Lisa A. Racie and Edward R. Lavallie and Xiang-Yang Tang and Philippe Edouard and Steve Howes and James C. Keith and John M. Mccoy},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2000},
  volume={403},
  pages={785-789}
}

• S. Mi, X. Lee, +9 authors J. Mccoy
• Published 17 February 2000
• Biology
• Nature

Many mammalian viruses have acquired genes from their hosts during their evolution. The rationale for these acquisitions is usually quite clear: the captured genes are subverted to provide a selective advantage to the virus. Here we describe the opposite situation, where a viral gene has been sequestered to serve an important function in the physiology of a mammalian host. This gene, encoding a protein that we have called syncytin, is the envelope gene of a recently identified human endogenous defective retrovirus, HERV-W. We find that the major sites of syncytin expression are placental syncytiotrophoblasts, multinucleated cells that originate from fetal trophoblasts. We show that expression of recombinant syncytin in a wide variety of cell types induces the formation of giant syncytia, and that fusion of a human trophoblastic cell line expressing endogenous syncytin can be inhibited by an anti-syncytin antiserum. Our data indicate that syncytin may mediate placental cytotrophoblast fusion in vivo, and thus may be important in human placental morphogenesis.