Thursday, November 22, 2012

Retrovirus


Retrovirus consists of two molecules of single-stranded RNA connected together. The double strand allows a higher rate of recombination gene.
 Virus are morphologically very similar to each other and are composed of proteins, RNA and membrane lipids.
The main feature of this virus is the reverse transcriptase enzyme that produces DNA from an RNA molecule.
The virus recognizes the cell surface and fuses with the plasma membrane. After penetration of the viral nucleocapsid, occurs the reverse transcription of virus RNA into viral DNA that migrates to the nucleus of the cell and integrates in the host cell DNA. Then starts the transcription of this DNA into viral RNA, consequently proteins are also produced and hundreds of new virus. One of the most familiar types of retrovirus is HIV, which infects humans blood T lymphocytes.

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