Retroviruses

1
Retroviruses

• Objective
• To understand why retroviruses are so unique

2
The discovery of RT

• Howard Temin- oncongenic potential of RNA viruses
• David Baltimore- virion associated polymerases
  (won Nobel at age of 37)
• Published the discovery of RT in back to back
  articles on Nature

3
Required components for RT

• RNA
• tRNA
• NP
• RT

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(No Transcript)
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RT Catalytic Properties

• DNA polymerization is slow
• Fidelity is low
• No editing
• Error-prone

6
Integration

• DNA gets integrated proviral DNA
• Integrase coded in 3 region of pol
• PR, RT, and IN present in virion
• PR cleave Pol-Gag
• RT and IN in equimolar

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Integration