• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Retroviruses - in Sheep! - fascinating snippet ...

pictureofhealth

XMRV - L'Agent du Jour
Messages
534
Location
Europe
Sheep need retroviruses for reproduction.

These (endogenous) sheep retroviruses help their placenta to develop.

Thought this was interesting in light of the fact that XMRV proliferates in humans in androgen and other sex hormone environments (according to recent US research).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060911233630.htm

Interesting how retroviruses have become helpful to some mammals in certain instances.
 

Sing

Senior Member
Messages
1,782
Location
New England
Great find, pictureofhealth! I like sciencedaily.com very much for its clear writing about science topics. Anyway, they write here:

"Studies in cultured cells have shown that a protein of a human endogenous retrovirus might have a role in development of the human placenta."

I had read that elsewhere, that some retroviruses, long held in our DNA, play a constructive role.
 

pictureofhealth

XMRV - L'Agent du Jour
Messages
534
Location
Europe
What I find most interesting about this article is that retroviruses were beneficial for sheep, rather than damaging. I think I was operating under the assumption that Retrovirus = Bad, whereas this is not the case here and in fact they are life promoting!