NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -A retrovirus is a virus that uses RNA as its genomic material. Upon infection with a retrovirus, a cell converts the retroviral RNA into DNA, which in turn is inserted into the DNA of the host cell. The cell then produces more retroviruses, which infect other cells.

Detailed explanation-2: -Retroviruses are “retro” because they reverse the direction of the normal gene-copying process. Usually, cells convert DNA into RNA so that it can be made into proteins. But with retroviruses, the process has to start by going backward.

Detailed explanation-3: -A type of virus that has RNA instead of DNA as its genetic material. It uses an enzyme called reverse transcriptase to become part of the host cells’ DNA. This allows many copies of the virus to be made in the host cells. The virus that causes AIDS, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is a type of retrovirus.

Detailed explanation-4: -Retroviruses and Retroviral Infections The Retroviridae constitute a large family of viruses that predominantly infect both human and animal vertebrates. They are positive-stranded enveloped RNA viruses that reverse transcribe their RNA into a DNA intermediate during viral replication, hence the name ‘retroviruses’.

Detailed explanation-5: -RNA viruses are viruses that have a single-stranded or double-stranded RNA as their genetic material, while retroviruses are viruses that have a single-stranded RNA as their genetic material but use DNA intermediates in their life cycle. Thus, this is the key difference between RNA Viruses and retroviruses.