1. How our genome’s foes became its helpers
Michael Gross 
Current Biology 
Volume 27, Issue 10, Pages R365-R368 (May 2017)
DOI: /j.cub
Copyright © Terms and Conditions

2. Shared ancestry: The large family of KRAB zinc finger transcription factors goes back to a defence mechanism that originated in a common ancestor of humans and coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae). (Photo: Mordecai 1998, CC BY-SA 4.0.)
Current Biology  , R365-R368DOI: ( /j.cub )
Copyright © Terms and Conditions

3. Viral threat: Retroviruses like HIV, which causes AIDS, can insert DNA transcripts of their RNA into the host genome. KRAB zinc finger transcription factors are believed to have evolved to control foreign DNA that resulted from retroviral invasions and became heritable. (Image: Hans-Ulrich Osterwalder/Science Photo Library.)
Current Biology  , R365-R368DOI: ( /j.cub )
Copyright © Terms and Conditions

4. Mice and men: Like humans, mice have several hundreds of KRAB zinc finger transcription factors. Compared to ours, however, those in mice point to more recent retroviral threats. (Photo: Rama/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.)
Current Biology  , R365-R368DOI: ( /j.cub )
Copyright © Terms and Conditions

5. Wrapped around: Proteins with several zinc finger domains in a well-defined orientation can detect and bind specific DNA sequences. (Image: Nwkimberley/CC BY-SA 3.0.)
Current Biology  , R365-R368DOI: ( /j.cub )
Copyright © Terms and Conditions