Retrovirus infects a cell

When a retrovirus infects a cell:

• its molecules of reverse transcriptase are carried into the cell attached to the viral RNA molecules.


• The reverse transcriptase synthesizes DNA copies of the RNA.


• These enter the nucleus


• and are inserted into the DNA of the host.


• These inserts are transcribed by the host's enzymes into fresh RNA molecules which re-enter the cytosol where some are translated by host ribosomes


• while other RNA molecules become incorporated into fresh virus particles.

Picture extracted: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/R/Retroviruses.html

References to text (Retroviruses): http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4426 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/00.061.htm http://gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/ch042.htm http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/R/Retroviruses.html