Reverse Transcriptase

Reverse Transcriptase

Retroviruses’ replication cycle involves retroviral reverse transcriptase,

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Reverse transcriptase - an enzyme which converts the single-stranded, positive-polarity RNA genome of retrovirus into double-stranded DNA, thereby reversing the typical flow of genetic information (which is from DNA to mRNA).

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The DNA copy is transported into host cell’s nucleus, circularized and integrated into the host chromosome itslef.
This DNA copy of the retrovirus genome is called as “poxvirus or proviral DNA”. The genomes of most vertebrates contain abundant numbers of incomplete and complete proviruses (endogenous retroviruses) that appear to represent remnants of past retroviral infections in germline cells. Proviruses contain structures called long terminal repeats (LTR) at each end which contains promoter elements and transcriptional start sites that enable the retroviral genes to be expressed which can also affect the expression of nearby cellular genes.