Nearly half of the human and primate genome is derived from ancient transposable elements, primarily retroelements. This surprising fact alone suggests that retroelements have played a major role in genome organization and evolution. Here we review studies performed in the last 20 years on the...

Cellular and molecular mechanisms underling allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) have been, and still are, under intense investigation, not only for the relevance of ACD in clinical medicine, but also because ACD is a paradigm of T cell-mediated immune reactions of the skin. Epidermal cells are...

A large number of various genomes sequenced recently for the first time make it possible to analyze evolutionary changes at a whole genome level, unlike a single gene level. Intra- and interspecies comparisons of the sequenced genomes demonstrated that the organism’s complexities did not...

Fast progress in human and other genome sequencing has created a foundation for global functional analysis of complex genomes. Genome-wide interindividual, population, and interspecies comparisons of genome variability and instability provide most valuable approaches for deciphering spatial...

Functional aspects of genetic information as well as the diversity of different genomes will be major biomedical issues in postgenomic research. Genomic information from numerous organisms is closing in at an ever-increasing rate. Complete genomes are available from different pro- and...

During Hominoid evolution a lot of sequence and chromosomal organization differences between highly related genomes of human and the African great apes were accumulated. Some of them certainly form a genetic basis for recently evolved, specifically human traits such as brain size of at least...

This chapter is a very brief introduction to exogenous and endogenous retroviruses and other genomic mobile elements whose mobility is conditioned by transient passage through an RNA stage. This passage is mediated by transcription of the element with host cell RNA polymerase, followed by...

Nearly half of the human and primate genome is derived from ancient transposable elements, primarily retroelements. This surprising fact alone suggests that retroelements have played a major role in genome organization and evolution. Here we review studies performed in the last 20 years on the...

Endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) and retrotransposons are normal components of the human DNA. During evolution these elements have spread by retrotransposition and thus dispersed their regulatory sequences throughout the genome. Novel insertions can have a variety of consequences for adjacent...

Transposable elements, primarily retroelements (REs), were permanently amplified in primate genomes during the last 65 million years suggesting their evolutionary significance. Fixed in the ancestral genome, newly integrated REs are considered as efficient pacemakers in primate evolution. Here...

This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art of the approaches to the investigation of human and other complex transcriptomes. The techniques of differential cDNA libraries screening, subtractive hybridization, serial analysis of gene expression, DNA microarrays and differential display are...

The human genome contains a number of human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) families, each resulting from a single germ-line infection. Here we combine information on all previously described HERV families, and further search the human genome sequencing project databases to add taxa to taxon poor...

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are remnants of retroviral infections. ERVs preserve functions of exogenous retroviruses to various extents. ERVs are both parasites and symbionts. Although the most pathogenic elements are eliminated by selection, some pathogenicity may remain. Some recently...