Evidence that a major class of mouse endogenous long terminal repeats (LTRs) resulted from recombination between exogenous retroviral LTRs and similar LTR-like elements (LTR-IS).

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Abstract
Two endogenous retroviral long terminal repeats (LTR) were sequenced and compared to LTR-IS (a family of insertion-element-like sequences with structural features of solitary retroviral LTR) and to Moloney murine leukemia virus DNA. The sequence comparisons revealed that the major difference between these 2 endogenous LTR is a 190-base-pair segment which is also present in LTR-IS elements. Hybridization analysis of DNA from several mouse species using specific probes shows linkage of the 190-base-pair segment to a LTR-IS specific fragment. Evidently, the major class of endogenous LTR has been generated by recombination between endogenous retroviral LTR and LTR-IS sequences.