Reverse transcriptase

Being the protein that gives their name to Retroviruses, Reverse Transcriptase is, in company of Hiv protease and Hiv integrase, the most important part of the protein system that this type of viruses use in the process of infecting their target. Reverse Transcriptase is a RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase, that going against the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology, transcribes ssRNA into dsDNA.

StructureStructure

This 2-chain protein has an usual length of 1000 residues (560 in chain A and 440 for B), the third of them involved in alpha helical secondary structure and almost a quarter in beta sheets,

See AlsoSee Also

• Molecule of the Month (09/2002) at RCSB PDB
• List of Reverse Transcriptase articles at Proteopedia and at RCSB PDB
• Reverse Transcriptase at Wikipedia