Reverse transcription

Reverse transcription is the synthesis of DNA using RNA as a template. It is carried out by reverse transcriptases and occurs in retroviruses and other biological systems.

Reverse transcriptase: An enzyme that synthesizes DNA from an RNA template. This enzyme catalyzes the defining RNA-to-DNA step.
Retrovirus: A virus that copies its RNA genome into DNA during replication. Retroviruses depend on reverse transcription to establish DNA copies of their genomes.
Howard Temin: An American virologist who proposed that some viruses copy RNA into DNA. His provirus hypothesis predicted the DNA intermediate later explained by reverse transcription.
Transcription: The synthesis of RNA from a DNA template. Transcription copies DNA into RNA, whereas reverse transcription uses RNA to make DNA.
RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: A DNA polymerase that uses RNA, rather than DNA, as its template. This enzyme class describes the core catalytic activity of reverse transcriptase.
HIV: A retrovirus that attacks immune cells and can cause AIDS. HIV uses reverse transcription to convert its RNA genome into DNA inside host cells.
David Baltimore: An American virologist who independently identified reverse transcriptase in tumor viruses. His experiments established the enzyme responsible for RNA-directed DNA synthesis.
DNA replication: The cellular process of copying DNA to produce DNA molecules. Ordinary replication uses DNA as its template rather than RNA.
RNase H: An enzyme activity that degrades the RNA strand of an RNA–DNA hybrid. Many reverse transcriptases remove the copied RNA before DNA synthesis is completed.
Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction: A laboratory method that converts RNA into complementary DNA before amplifying it by PCR. It adapts reverse transcription to measure or detect RNA molecules.

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