VIRUSES AS AGENTS OF EUKARYOTIC GENOME EVOLUTION

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En accord avec l'Académie des Sciences, les membres d'HEC Santé sont conviés à la  Séance qui se tiendra mardi 17 novembre 2026, de 14h30 à 17h00, sur le thème 

VIRUSES AS AGENTS OF EUKARYOTIC GENOME EVOLUTION

"This conference will focus on aspects related to the overall viruses impact on the evolution of species.

The intimate relationship between viruses and their host cells or organisms, which they must infect in order to replicate and persist in nature, has profoundly influenced the evolution of life since its very origin. Similarly, transposable genetic elements (transposons) have been major drivers of genome evolution.

The human genome contains approximately 8% sequences derived from endogenous retroviruses and nearly 40% sequences originating from transposons. Although viruses are best known to the general public for the diseases they cause, their pathogenicity represents only a very small fraction of their biological impact. Viruses influence their hosts not only indirectly, by exerting selective pressures that drive evolutionary adaptation, but also directly through the incorporation of viral genetic material into host genomes.

The aim of this conference is to explore how viruses and transposons have shaped host genomes throughout evolution. It will analyze the role of viral- and transposon-derived sequences in regulating the expression of cellular genes, as well as the essential functions of genes of viral origin that have been co-opted by hosts over evolutionary time. For practical reasons, the discussion will focus on multicellular organisms. However, it is worth noting that bacteriophage-derived genetic elements are frequently integrated into bacterial genomes and play a fundamental role in the ecology and evolution of the prokaryotic world.

Organization:

Félix Rey, member of the Académie des sciences, research director at CNRS, laboratory "Virologie" (CNRS/Institut Pasteur)

Moshé Yaniv, member of the Académie des sciences, professor emeritus at Institut Pasteur and research director emeritus at CNRS

Previsional program:

MDA5-driven autoinflammation is associated with dsRNAs from LINE-1s and interferon response genes

Helen Rowe, Queen Mary University, London, UK

Transposable elements are exonized by cryptic mRNA splicing, generating new protein isoforms for natural selection

Sébastian Amigorena, Académie des sciences, Institut Curie, France

From the mouse Fv1 gene to Syncytin A and B

Thierry Heidmann, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

Receptor-recognition mechanisms of retrovirus-derived human proteins

Nicolas Reyes, research director at CNRS, laboratory Microbiologie fondamentale et pathogénicité (MFP - CNRS/Université de Bordeaux), France

Structure and assembly of endogenous Atlas virus capsids

Yorgo Modis, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK."

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