Skip to main content

Baltimore Groups IV–VII and Retroviruses

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Groups IV and V carry single-stranded RNA read or copied into mRNA; Groups VI and VII use reverse transcriptase to make DNA from RNA.

Show

HIV, a Group VI retrovirus, reverse-transcribes its RNA genome into DNA before inserting it into the host cell's genome.

Watch for

Reverse transcription runs counter to a cell's usual DNA-to-RNA direction— retroviruses are the named exception, not the rule.