3 ms·

It's not necessarily an rna vs dna thing. HIV is an rna virus and notoriously goes latent.

• est31 6y ago
  You are right in that HIV is an RNA virus and achieves latency, but it doesn't attain latency in its RNA form, but from the RNA being converted to DNA and then incorporated into the host cell's chromosomal DNA (in DNA form). It then sticks around for the duration of the cell's life and any of its descendants. That's why HIV is called a retrovirus, because it creates DNA from RNA during its life cycle. RNA is chemically less stable than DNA so the latter is more suited for viruses with long genomes as well as viruses which want to go latent. Not an expert. Would be curious if there are viruses that are latent while being in RNA form. Anyways, Coronaviruses are no retroviruses and their entire lifecycle is in RNA form, so there is no danger of them becoming latent from what I could gather.
  • vikramkr 6y ago
    Hep C in its chronic form isn't exactly "latent" in the way that a lentivirus or a herpesvirus can be, but it's the closest thing I can think of in terms of an RNA virus that replicates with RNA dependent RNA polymerase that has something resembling a "latent" form. It still replicates and has turnover due to the low stability of RNA as you mentioned, but it stays asymptomatic for decades in this infection course. I"m sure a virologist might be able to chime in with a better example, maybe a nonhuman one? There's so much variation in biology it'd almost be surprising if some RNA virus somewhere hadn't figured out some weird way to stabilize an RNA episome somehow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C#Chronic_infection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C#Chronic_infection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C_virus#Replication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C_virus#Replication