the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) uses rna, rather than dna, to encode genetic information. during infection, however, hiv uses an enzyme known as reverse transcriptase to generate double-stranded dna. generally speaking, how would the enzyme generate a double strand of dna from a single strand of rna?
In order to create a second strand of DNA that is complementary to the first one, reverse transcriptase first catalyzes the synthesis of a DNA copy from the viral RNA.
What is DNA?
Single-stranded RNA is transformed into DNA by the DNA polymerase enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT), also known as RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. This enzyme can produce a double helix DNA after the RNA has been reverse transcribed in a first step into a single-strand DNA.
Transcription is the first step in gene expression. The DNA sequence of a gene needs to be duplicated in order to produce an RNA molecule. Transcription is carried out by RNA polymerases, which combine nucleotides to form an RNA strand.
The process of producing RNA from the genetic material found in DNA is called transcription. RNA polymerases, which combine nucleotides to make an RNA strand, carry out transcription.
In order to create a second strand of DNA that is complementary to the first one, reverse transcriptase first catalyzes the synthesis of a DNA copy from the viral RNA.
