What does the enzyme reverse transcriptase do?

1 Answer
Jun 14, 2016

Reverse transcriptase converts RNA into cDNA.

Explanation:

Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme found in so called retroviruses. The enzyme is able to make complementary DNA (cDNA) from RNA.

Most organisms don't have such an enzyme and are only able to make RNA from DNA; Retroviruses -such as HIV- do the reverse hence the name reverse transcriptase .

If you want to know more about retrovirsuses please read the answer to the following question on this website: What is a retrovirus?

Note that in some processes in the human cell, RNA can also be converted to DNA (most textbook say otherwise). Enzymes in DNA-repair and telomere extension use RNA as a template to make DNA.