The capsid of the virus-derived retrotransposon Copia, a parasitic genome element, mediates synaptic plasticity at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction

A reduction of the retrotransposon at theDrosophilaNMJ leads to a drastic increase in synaptogenesis and plasticity (-copia). The structure of Copia (center), shows a large retroviral like structure with pores (right panel), that are very similar to those found in HIV-1 capsids, these pores and like structures are needed for reverse transcription of viral genomes.  Altogether we found that the retroviral nature of Copia regulates a physiological function. Credit: M’Angale PG et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)