EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -HIV is classified as a retrovirus because it contains reverse transcriptase. It is a D-type virus in the Lentivirus family. Infection of cultured T4 cells with HIV usually results in cell death.

Detailed explanation-2: -HIV is a retrovirus, which means it carries single-stranded RNA as its genetic material rather than the double-stranded DNA human cells carry. Retroviruses also have the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which allows it to copy RNA into DNA and use that DNA “copy” to infect human, or host, cells.

Detailed explanation-3: -Besides human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, there a two other retroviruses that can cause human illness. One is called human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and the other is called human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-II).

Detailed explanation-4: -Retroviruses are divided into two classes: simple retrovirus and complex retrovirus (ie, lentivirus or HIV). The simple retroviruses encode three polyproteins, termed Gag, Pol, and Env, whereas the complex retroviruses encode six accessory proteins, in addition to the polyproteins.

Detailed explanation-5: -4.1 Retroviruses: HIV-1 and beyond. Retroviruses are positive-sense single-stranded (ss)RNA viruses that replicate through a DNA intermediate via reverse transcription, and integrate into the genome of the host. This gives rise to a lifelong infection, for which no cure exists.