RETRO VIRUSES & EVOLUTION

Dr Spencer’s results have shown that the enJSRV retro virus must be present and functional within the sheep’s DNA for full placental development and therefore successful reproduction.For 30 years scientists have suggested that endogenous retroviruses provided a key step in the evolution of the mammalian placenta (dailyscience).  What Dr.Spencer’s results show is that enJSRV must have provided some evolutionary benefit and have been heritable in the early mammals it infected, for it to be present and highly conserved today in sheep and all placental mammal.  This follows the basic dogma if evolution that if a mutation provides a better survival advantage and is heritable it is likely to become dominant within a population.  This theory was first developed by Charles Darwin.

Figure 1, a photo of the father of evolution, Charles Darwin.

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