Research achievement by Associate Prof. Keizo Tomonaga was published in Nature.

Associate Prof. Tomonaga and colleagues discovered endogenous elements related to the nucleoprotein (N) of bornavirus, a non-segmented, negative-strand RNA virus, in mammalian genomes. This is the first evidence for endogenization of non-retroviral virus-derived elements in mammalian genomes. Furthermore, the N mRNA of a current mammalian bornavirus was demonstrated to be able to generate integrated DNA forms in the genomes of persistently infected cultured cells. These results give novel insights not only into generation of endogenous elements but also into a role of bornavirus as a source of genetic novelty in its host. This work was published in January 7 issue of Nature. The Yomiuri Shinbun, The Asahi Shinbun, The Mainichi Shinbun, The Sankei Shinbun, NHK news and The New York Times reported on the work.