Endogenization

Endogenization leads to vertical transmission of viral DNA.

Endogenization is the evolutionary process by which viral genetic material becomes stably integrated into the germline of a host organism and inherited by offspring through Mendelian inheritance. The integrated sequences become endogenous viral elements, which encompasses all inheritable virus-derived sequences regardless of virus type.

Essentially, a successful endogenization event can transform what had been an exogenous pathogen into a fixed, inheritable component of the host's own genome. This can have a wide range of repercussions within the host, or it can have none at all.

The molecular mechanisms driving this process vary among virus and host types. It can more commonly occur from the direct use of integrases, or through other means such as the incidental hijacking of host DNA repair pathways.

Retroviruses are the most common source of endogenization, as genomic integration is an obligatory step in their replication, and can create endogenous retroviruses. Nevertheless, every category of eukaryotic virus can contribute sequences to host germlines, including RNA viruses with no obligatory DNA stage in their life cycle.

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