ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2008
A placenta-specific receptor for the fusogenic, endogenous retrovirus-derived, human syncytin-2.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 215 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolutionary co-option of endogenous retroviruses: syncytins as regulators of placental development and disease.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- In vitro Reconstitution of Syncytin-2 and MFSD2A Reveals their Functional Tethering in Membrane Fusion Initiation.The Journal of membrane biology · 2026Article
- Endogenous retroviral elements LTR8B and MER65 rewire PSG9 regulation to control trophoblast syncytialization and pre-eclampsia risk.Genome biology · 2026Article
- CirculatingCancers · 2026Article
- The human endogenous retroviral envelope HEMO protein interacts with BACE2: Novel partnership acquired in the primate lineage.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Variations in blood levels of the anti-fusogenic endogenous retroviral protein suppressyn are associated with fetal growth outcome in preeclampsia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Strict retroelement regulation is frequently lost following cancer transformation and generates a promising reservoir of cancer biomarkers.Mobile DNA · 2025Article
- MFSD2A in Focus: the Molecular Mechanism of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Transport.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Review
- Inhibition of placental trophoblast fusion by guanylate-binding protein 5.Science advances · 2025Article
- Placental cytotrophoblast microvillar stabilization is required for cell-cell fusion.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Human Virus-Like Proteins: Implications for Gene Therapy.Current gene therapy · 2025Review
- Cell-Int: a cell-cell interaction assay to identify native membrane protein interactions.Life science alliance · 2024Article
- Sodium-dependent phosphate transporter PiT1/SLC20A1 as the receptor for the endogenous retroviral envelope syncytin-B involved in mouse placenta formation.Journal of virology · 2024Article
- Charting the Dynamic Trophoblast Plasma Membrane Identifies LYN As a Functional Regulator of Syncytialization.ACS chemical biology · 2024Article
- TFEB controls expression of human syncytins during cell-cell fusion.Genes & development · 2024Article
- Article
- Receptor-recognition and antiviral mechanisms of retrovirus-derived human proteins.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2024Article
- TFEB safeguards trophoblast syncytialization in humans and mice.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Syncytiotrophoblast Markers Are Downregulated in Placentas from Idiopathic Stillbirths.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Disruption of maternal vascular remodeling by a fetal endoretrovirus-derived gene in preeclampsia.Genome biology · 2024Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Syncytin-2 is an envelope gene from the human endogenous retrovirus FRD (HERV-FRD) co-opted by an ancestral primate host, conserved in evolution over >40 Myr, specifically expressed in the placenta, and with a cell-cell fusogenic activity likely contributing to placenta morphogenesis. Here, using the GeneBridge4 human/Chinese hamster radiation hybrid panel, we mapped and identified the human receptor for syncytin-2. This receptor-namely Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain Containing 2 (MFSD2)-belongs to a large family of presumptive carbohydrate transporters with 10-12 membrane-spanning domains, is located at chromosomal position 1p34.2, and is conserved in evolution. An expression vector for MFSD2 confers fusogenicity to otherwise insusceptible cells upon transfection of syncytin-2. It also confers infectivity to syncytin-2 pseudotypes, consistent with this protein being the receptor for the ancestrally acquired HERV-FRD family of endogenous retroviruses. At variance with the human gene, neither mouse nor rat MFSD2 can mediate membrane fusion, which is consistent with the fact that the envelope-derived syncytin genes co-opted by rodents during evolution are not orthologous to the human syncytin genes. Remarkably, a real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis of MFSD2 in various human tissues demonstrates specific expression in the placenta, as well as in the human BeWo choriocarcinoma cell line, which discloses enhancement of receptor expression upon induction by forskolin of cell-cell fusion and syncytium formation. In situ hybridization of human placental tissue using an MFSD2-specific probe further unambiguously demonstrates receptor expression at the level of the syncytiotrophoblast, again consistent with a role in placenta morphogenesis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.