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Phoenix rising: Scientists resuscitate a 5 million-year-old retrovirus

A team of scientists has reconstructed the DNA sequence of a 5-million-year-old retrovirus and shown that it is able to produce infectious particles. The retrovirus -- named Phoenix -- is the ancestor of a large family of mobile DNA elements, some of which may play a role in cancer. The study is the first to generate an infectious retrovirus from a mobile element in the human genome. The findings are reported in Genome Research.

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Keywords: phoenix, rising, scientists, resuscitate, million-year-old, retrovirus, scientist, million, year, old, retroviru

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