On episode #288 of the science show This Week in Virology, the Twivsters discuss how reverse transcriptase encoded in the human genome might produce DNA copies of RNA viruses in infected cells. You can find TWiV #288 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Many years ago a claim was made that cells infected with respiratory syncytial virus contained infectious DNA copies of the viral genome. When this paper was published, retroviral reverse transcriptase had been discovered, which explained how DNA copies of retroviral RNA genomes were made in infected cells. Although the respiratory syncytial viral genome is RNA, it does …
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