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Central Dogma and Reverse Transcription
Concepts tested here
- RNA-dependent DNA polymerase
All Questions
2005 AIPMT 1 question
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Which one of the following makes use of RNA as a template to synthesize DNA -Reverse transcriptase is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: it uses RNA as the template to synthesise a complementary DNA strand.
It is found in retroviruses such as HIV, whose RNA genome is copied into DNA after infection; this DNA is then integrated into the host genome.
This reverses the usual flow of information (DNA to RNA), so it is called reverse transcription; it is an exception to the central dogma.
The enzyme is also used in genetic engineering to make complementary DNA (cDNA) from mRNA.
DNA-dependent RNA polymerase and RNA polymerase use DNA as the template to make RNA, and DNA polymerase uses DNA as the template to make DNA.
So the enzyme is reverse transcriptase.