Retrovirus
A retrovirus is any virus which copies itself as part of the cell's DNA by reverse transcribing its RNA. Since the cell cannot proofread the step in which RNA is converted back to DNA, errors often go unnoticed. This changes the exact sequence of a retrovirus' RNA frequently. This makes it harder for retroviruses to be attacked by drugs.
HIV is a retrovirus, which makes it very difficult to overcome using drugs.
Retrovirus Media
The genomic and subgenomic organization of a prototypical retrovirus. Abbreviations are explained in the file description.
A retrovirus has a membrane containing glycoproteins, which are able to bind to a receptor protein on a host cell. There are two strands of RNA within the cell that have three enzymes: protease, reverse transcriptase, and integrase (1).
Phylogeny of Retroviruses; genera that include endogenous genomes are marked with an asterisk.
Related pages
Other websites
- Retrovirology Scientific journal
- Retroviruses at rcn.com Archived 2013-03-29 at the Wayback Machine
