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Re:The human genome is full of viruses by Retric on Saturday March 07, 2020 @07:51PM (#22515444)
The human body has around 40 trillion cells, and only DNA from one of gets passed on to each child. Considering how frequently that cell happened to be infected in human history the average person like has many individual cells with some new viral DNA. But, criticaly those changes are neither inherented by children or widespread across every cell.

In effect what’s being described is an interesting oddity rather than a significant effect on an individual level. Unless it happens to cause cancer, etc.

Re:The human genome is full of viruses by dharma1 on Saturday March 07, 2020 @08:24PM (#22515608)
To pass a viral alteration of DNA to offspring, the retrovirus has to infect germline cells, which they usually don't - and in a way that produces a viable offspring, which is even rarer. That's not to say it doesn't happen over long enough time period - it clearly does.

From wikipedia-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogenous_retrovirus

Most retroviruses infect somatic cells, but occasional infection of germline cells (cells that produce eggs and sperm) can also occur. Rarely, retroviral integration may occur in a germline cell that goes on to develop into a viable organism. This organism will carry the inserted retroviral genome as an integral part of its own genome—an "endogenous" retrovirus (ERV) that may be inherited by its offspring as a novel allele.