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Single-Stranded RNA Plus Genomes that Synthesize DNA as Part of their Life Cycle: Retroviruses (RNA Tumor Viruses)

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Molecular Virology

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Abstract

These are RNA viruses that infect animals and replicate through a DNA intermediate called proviral DNA. The virions have a diameter of 100 nm with a lipid bilayer enveloping an icosahedral core containing a helical nucleocapsid. The nucleocapsid contains an enzyme, the reverse transcriptase (an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase), The genome is made up of two identical RNA+ molecules, each with a molecular weight of 7–10 × 106. The ultrastructure of the virions is shown in figure 68. Retroviruses resemble other enveloped viruses that are formed by budding through cytoplasmic membranes (figure 69). (The term retrovirus comes from the Latin retro, meaning backward; the term also refers to reverse transcriptase.)

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  1. Department of Molecular Virology Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Yechiel Becker (Carolyn Jane Bendheim Professor of Molecular Virology)

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  1. Yechiel Becker
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  2. Julia Hadar
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Julia Hadar

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© 1983 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague

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Becker, Y., Hadar, J. (1983). Single-Stranded RNA Plus Genomes that Synthesize DNA as Part of their Life Cycle: Retroviruses (RNA Tumor Viruses). In: Hadar, J. (eds) Molecular Virology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3906-9_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3906-9_21

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