Reverse transcriptase

Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme that synthesizes DNA using RNA as a template. It is central to retroviral replication and is also used in molecular biology.

RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: An enzyme that synthesizes DNA using an RNA template. Reverse transcriptase is the best-known enzyme in this broader functional class.
Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction: A technique that converts RNA to complementary DNA and then amplifies selected sequences by polymerase chain reaction. It uses reverse transcriptase as the first step for detecting or measuring RNA.
Howard Temin: An American virologist who proposed that RNA tumor viruses replicate through a DNA intermediate. His provirus hypothesis challenged the assumed one-way flow of genetic information.
HIV reverse transcriptase: The HIV enzyme that converts the virus's single-stranded RNA genome into double-stranded DNA. It is a medically central, well-studied example of reverse transcriptase.
RNase H: An enzyme activity that degrades the RNA strand of an RNA–DNA hybrid. Many reverse transcriptases use this activity to remove their RNA template during DNA synthesis.
Quantitative PCR: A method that monitors DNA amplification in real time to estimate the amount of starting nucleic acid. When preceded by reverse transcription, it quantifies RNA abundance.
David Baltimore: An American virologist who independently discovered reverse transcriptase in 1970. His work established the enzyme's presence in RNA tumor viruses.
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor: An antiviral drug that resembles a nucleoside and terminates DNA synthesis after incorporation by reverse transcriptase. These drugs block the enzyme by disrupting the growing viral DNA chain.
DNA-dependent DNA polymerase: An enzyme that synthesizes DNA using DNA as a template. It copies DNA rather than the RNA templates used by reverse transcriptase.
Complementary DNA: DNA synthesized from an RNA template, typically representing expressed sequences without introns. Reverse transcriptase produces the DNA used in gene-expression studies and cDNA libraries.

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