Retrovirus Contain RNA, not DNA. Family Retroviridae Contain enzyme called Reverse Trascriptase When a retrovirus infects a cell, it injects its RNA and reverse trancriptase enzyme into the cytoplasm of that cell. The enzyme reverse transcriptase, which causes synthesis of a complementary DNA molecule using virus RNA as a template. HIV, the AIDS ( Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus is a retrovirus. The retroviridae family encompasses a group of viruses in which the replicative life cycle requires reverse transcription of the viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) genome into doublestranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In fact, discovery of the enzyme that performs this task, reverse transcriptase, revolutionized the understanding of genetic structure and produced the enzymatic tools used in all modern molecular biology laboratories to study the structure of messenger RNA (mRNA) and evaluate gene expression. Retroviridae initially were identified in a variety of...
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