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. 2000 Feb 17;403(6771):785-9.
doi: 10.1038/35001608.

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

S Mi  1 , X Lee, X Li, G M Veldman, H Finnerty, L Racie, E LaVallie, X Y Tang, P Edouard, S Howes, J C Keith Jr, J M McCoy
Affiliations

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

S Mi et al. Nature. .

Abstract

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.

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Comment in

  • A provirus put to work.
    Stoye JP, Coffin JM. Stoye JP, et al. Nature. 2000 Feb 17;403(6771):715, 717. doi: 10.1038/35001700. Nature. 2000. PMID: 10693785 No abstract available.

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