4 ms·
HIV is powered by RNA
- akkartik 16y agorNTP, not RNA.
- jforman 16y agorNTPs are the monomers of RNA
- nchaimov 16y agoRetroviruses generally are.
- icegreentea 16y agoI think it's much more subtle than that. 'Powered' is a poor metaphor I think. I believe what they're referring to is the actual reverse transcription process. Retroviruses carry its own reverse transcriptease, and must use the cell's own resources to do the actual transcription (they need to get the dNTP to build actual DNA strands). The 'big deal' about this discovery is that HIV can use rNTP to preform reverse transcription instead in cases where there isn't enough dNTP, which presumably (I'm not an expert in this field) is one of the reasons why it is so successful compared to other retroviruses.
- nchaimov 16y agoYeah, looking at the journal article the linked article refers to, it appears that this is the case. http://www.jbc.org/content/285/50/39380.full http://www.jbc.org/content/285/50/39380.full
- pak 16y agoAgreed, title should be "HIV found to also replicate via RNA-only pathways" or something like that.
- cloudwalking 16y agoA retrovirus is an RNA that uses the host to make it's corresponding DNA. White blood cells--which HIV takes over--don't contain DNA building blocks (dNTP) because white blood cells don't replicate. So HIV can't make it's corresponding DNA. Instead, it just replicates using rNTP to produce more RNA. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) rNTP is available because it's used in ATP synthesis. (retrovirus (dNTP) DNA) (hiv (rNTP) RNA)
- InclinedPlane 16y agoI believe rNTPs are available because they are used in transcription.
- mmaunder 16y agoI wonder what effect the fear of HIV's existence has had on reducing the number of accidental pregnancies and what effect that has had on slowing world population growth.
- nollidge 16y agoHIV does not prevent pregnancy.
- xxpor 16y agoI think he is talking about increased condom usage relating to the fear of getting HIV having an indirect effect on the number of accidental pregnancies.
- Jach 16y agoThis just reminds me of an old experiment that tried to use artificial group selection to make Tribolium insects ( http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/73/12/4604.pdf http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/73/12/4604.pdf ) restrain their breeding, when instead they just ended up cannibalizing others' eggs (focusing on the females). People say HIV is a good excuse to fear having sex at all, conspiracies about the Vatican suggest it was developed for such a purpose, but nope, people just use condoms. Humans are as silly and fascinating as all the other life around here.
- klbarry 16y agoI don't think that was what he was saying, I don't understand why he is being downvoted. He was thinking that a fear of HIV may prevent unplanned pregnancy in the populace, and that theory has merit.
- nollidge 16y agoAck, I see that now. Interesting, though - I think the comment being downvoted to -1 (at the time) predisposed me to negatively misinterpret it.
- 16y ago