2. Are humans descended from viruses?
“If Charles Darwin reappeared today, he might be surprised to learn that humans are descended from viruses as well as from apes. Some 8% of human DNA represents fossil retroviral genomes…”
2006

3. “Reverse Transcriptase”
What is a retrovirus?
“Reverse Transcriptase”

4. Endogenous RetroVirus (ERV)
Sperm
Egg

5. ERV
ERV

6. The Discovery of ERVs
1963: Hypothesis: RNA virus inserts DNA copy into host.
1961: Some RNA viruses affect the DNA of their hosts.
1989: Human ERVs identified in other primates.
1957: Central dogma: DNA → RNA → Protein
1968: DNA insertion hypothesis confirmed.
1970: Discovery of reverse transcriptase.
1974: Retroviruses are finally named.
1961 Some RNA viruses affect the DNA of their hosts.
1963 Hypothesis: RNA virus inserts DNA copy into host.
1957 Central dogma: DNA → RNA → Protein
1968 DNA insertion hypothesis confirmed.
1970 Discovery of reverse transcriptase.
1989 Human ERVs identified in other primates.
1974 Retroviruses are finally named.
DNA
RNA
Protein

7. Evolution is Testable Endogenous Retroviruses and Common Ancestry
Prediction: If evolution by common descent is a correct description of the origin of human beings, then we should share ample evidence of shared ERV sequences with our closest relative, the chimpanzee.
Humans
Chimps

8. A Coincidence?
Would require the same retrovirus to insert in exactly the same chromosomal location.
ERVs insert their DNA at “integration sites.”
Each integration site is 100, ,000 base pairs in length.
Each ERV has integration sites.
Therefore, there at least 50,000,000 possible locations where an ERV can randomly insert itself.
Highly improbable that humans and chimps would have the same ERV sequence at the same location.

9. Humans
Chimpanzees

10. 1 ,3 ,4 ,5 ,2 ERV5 ERV4 ERV2 ERV3 ERV1 Human A Human B Chimpanzee
Mouse
Rat
ERV5
ERV4
ERV2
ERV3
ERV1

11. Evolution is Testable Endogenous Retroviruses and Common Ancestry
Patterns of ERV insertions observed in modern species exactly match predictions.
We do not find ERVs in the same position in two distantly related species without also finding it in the intervening species.
ERV evidence clearly demonstrates that modern organisms share common ancestry, confirming the predictions made by the theory of evolution.
Evolution is REAL science.

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14. An ERV in Gorillas and Chimps, but not in Humans?
Bonobos
Chimpanzees
Gorillas
ERV
Ancestral sequence
ERV sequence