Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. [2] After invading a host cell's cytoplasm , the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backward).
The general retrovirus genome consists of three genes vital for the invasion, replication, escape, and spreading of its viral genome. These three genes are gag (encodes for structural proteins for the viral core ), pol (encodes for reverse transcriptase , integrase , and protease ), and env (encodes for coat proteins for the virus's exterior).
Identical LTR sequences at either end of a retrotransposon. A long terminal repeat (LTR) is a pair of identical sequences of DNA, several hundred base pairs long, which occur in eukaryotic genomes on either end of a series of genes or pseudogenes that form a retrotransposon or an endogenous retrovirus or a retroviral provirus.
An endogenous retrovirus is a retrovirus without virus pathogenic effects that has been integrated into the host genome by inserting their inheritable genetic information into cells that can be passed onto the next generation like a retrotransposon. [8] Because of this, they share features with retroviruses and retrotransposons.
In cell-free spread (see figure), virus particles bud from an infected T cell, enter the blood or extracellular fluid and then infect another T cell following a chance encounter. [90] HIV can also disseminate by direct transmission from one cell to another by a process of cell-to-cell spread, for which two pathways have been described.
Lentivirus is a genus of retroviruses that cause chronic and deadly diseases characterized by long incubation periods, in humans and other mammalian species. [2] The genus includes the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.
A provirus not only refers to a retrovirus but is also used to describe other viruses that can integrate into the host chromosomes, another example being adeno-associated virus. Not only eukaryotic viruses integrate into the genomes of their hosts; many bacterial and archaeal viruses also employ this strategy of propagation.
XMRV is a murine leukemia virus (MLV) that formed through the recombination of the genomes of two parent MLVs known as preXMRV-1 and preXMRV-2. [12] MLVs belong to the virus family Retroviridae and the genus gammaretrovirus and have a single-stranded RNA genome that replicates through a DNA intermediate.