Why are hepadnaviruses DNA and not RNA viruses?

Christoph Seeger, Jianming Hu

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Virion assembly in hepadnaviruses is a two-step process leading to (1) the packaging of viral pregenomic RNA and reverse transcriptase into nucleocapsids and (2) the assembly of nucleocapsids with envelope components, which results in the formation of mature virus particles. Characteristically, both steps are intimately coupled to viral DNA synthesis. While assembly of nucleocapsids is coupled to the protein priming of reverse transcription, virion formation is linked to genome maturation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)447-450
Number of pages4
JournalTrends in Microbiology
Volume5
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1997

Keywords

  • DNA, Viral/genetics
  • DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases/metabolism
  • Hepadnaviridae/genetics
  • Nucleocapsid/genetics
  • RNA, Viral/genetics
  • RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase/metabolism
  • Transcription, Genetic

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