HIV Reverse Transcriptase

Molecular model from X-ray diffraction data (PDB ID: 1hys) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme (protein) which catalyses the formation of DNA from an RNA template. This process is called reverse transcription and is the reverse of normal cellular transcription (making RNA from a DNA template). These enzymes are found in retroviruses such as HIV, and are also available commercially for use in molecular biology experiments in the laboratory. In this image, viral RNA (red), newly transcribed viral DNA (purple) and the 2 chains of the HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme (green and blue) are visible. Width of image is approximately 12 nm.