Wiktionary
n. (context enzyme English) A polymerase that catalyzes the formation of DNA from RNA; found in retroviruses.
WordNet
n. a polymerase that catalyzes the formation of DNA using RNA as a template; found especially in retroviruses
Wikipedia
A reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme used to generate complementary DNA (cDNA) from an RNA template, a process termed reverse transcription. It is mainly associated with retroviruses. However, non-retroviruses also use RT (for example, the hepatitis B virus, a member of the Hepadnaviridae, which are dsDNA-RT viruses, while retroviruses are ssRNA viruses). RT inhibitors are widely used as antiretroviral drugs. RT activities are also associated with the replication of chromosome ends ( telomerase) and some mobile genetic elements ( retrotransposons).
Retroviral RT has three sequential biochemical activities:
- (a) RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity,
- (b) ribonuclease H, and
- (c) DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity.
These activities are used by the retrovirus to convert single-stranded genomic RNA into double-stranded cDNA which can integrate into the host genome, potentially generating a long-term infection that can be very difficult to eradicate. The same sequence of reactions is widely used in the laboratory to convert RNA to DNA for use in molecular cloning, RNA sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or genome analysis.
Well studied reverse transcriptases include:
- HIV-1 reverse transcriptase from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 has two subunits, which have respective molecular weights of 66 and 51 kDa.
- M-MLV reverse transcriptase from the Moloney murine leukemia virus is a single 75 kDa monomer.
- AMV reverse transcriptase from the avian myeloblastosis virus also has two subunits, a 63 kDa subunit and a 95 kDa subunit.
- Telomerase reverse transcriptase that maintains the telomeres of eukaryotic chromosomes.
Usage examples of "reverse transcriptase".
And you have reverse transcriptase, an enzyme almost always found in association with viruses.
In the most crucial phase of his work, Vergil had used viral reverse transcriptase to fix the feedback loop between RNA and DNA.
One's a retrovirus, the other's not, but you can convert RNA into viral DNA with reverse transcriptase.
Deep in the planetary biosphere, vectors armed with reverse transcriptase and strange artificial chromosomes were at work.
One of the commonest genes we have is for a protein called reverse transcriptase, which has no known beneficial function in human beings at all.