Retrovirus

A retrovirus is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus with a DNA intermediate and, as an obligate parasite, targets a host cell. Once inside the host cell cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backwards). The new DNA is then incorporated into the host cell genome by an integrase enzyme, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus. The host cell then treats the viral DNA as part of its own genome, translating and transcribing the viral genes along with the cell's own genes, producing the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus. It is difficult to detect the virus until it has infected the host. At that point, the infection will persist indefinitely.

Quotes

• In summary, I have tried here to develop the view of retroviruses as one of a number of solutions to the problem of creating a virus. Each virus directs synthesis of two critical classes of proteins: proteins for replication and proteins for constructing the virus particle. By encoding the reverse transcriptase, retroviruses have evolved the ability to integrate themselves into the cell chromosome as a provirus. This is a very sheltered environment in which to live, only mutation interferes with the continual transmission of the virus to the progeny of an animal that is infected in its germ cells. In this context, the ability of some retroviruses to cause cancer is a gratuitous one. But it is today the most challenging and important attribute of these retroviruses and the one that will dominate future research efforts in this area.
  • David Baltimore, "Viruses, Polymerases and Cancer: Nobel Lecture" (December 12, 1975)