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Ancient viral DNA in the human genome shapes early development

Stem-cell models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.
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  1. Sherif Khodeer

    1. Sherif Khodeer is in the Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, and in the Leuven Institute for Single-Cell Omics (LISCO), Leuven 3000, Belgium.

  2. Vincent Pasque

    1. Vincent Pasque is in the Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, and in the Leuven Institute for Single-Cell Omics (LISCO), Leuven 3000, Belgium.

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Early human development is orchestrated by finely tuned genetic ‘switches’ that transform the fertilized egg into a complex, multicellular organism. Although such developmental processes are evolutionarily conserved across many species, species-specific changes have been key drivers of developmental innovations throughout evolution. Uncovering human-specific molecular mechanisms that underlie embryo development is important for making advances in reproductive and regenerative medicine. However, this research is technically and ethically challenging because it typically relies on surplus embryos from in vitro fertilization. Writing in Nature, Fueyo et al.1 report their use of stem-cell-based models to reveal that a type of ancient DNA sequence, inserted previously into the human genome, acts as an essential switch for early embryonic development.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02970-4

References

  1. Fueyo, R. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09571-1 (2025).

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  3. Cosby, R. L., Chang, N.-C. & Feschotte, C. Genes Dev. 33, 1098–1116 (2019).

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Competing Interests

V.P. is one of the inventors on a patent application (PCT/EP2023/073949) filed by KU Leuven, Belgium, describing the protocols for inducing extra-embryonic mesoderm cells using naive human pluripotent stem cells.

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