Aberrant syncytialization has been implicated in preeclampsia (Roland et al., 2016), and several reports have indicated that the master players in syncytialization, including GCM1 and the syncytins (Vargas et al., 2009), are also downregulated in preeclampsia (Langbein et al., 2008; Orendi et al., 2010; Roland et al., 2016). Here, ERVW-1 is linked to preeclampsia.