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Extent of Transcription by the RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase of Rous Sarcoma Virus

Nature New Biology volume 233, pages 19–21 (1971)Cite this article

Abstract

THE identification of RNA-dependent DNA polymerases as components of RNA tumour viruses1–6 is consistent with Temin's provirus theory, which contends that RNA tumour viruses transform cells by integrating DNA copies of their genome into host cell chromosomes7,8. Transcription of the entire RNA genome into double stranded DNA would permit an integrated provirus to serve as template for the replication of new viral RNA, but the DNA molecules produced by these polymerases are small compared with their viral RNA templates: formation of hybrids of short DNA pieces transcribed against 70S RNA3,6,9 is followed by incorporation of most of this single stranded DNA into similarly small double stranded DNA of 4-10S10–12.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of California, San Francisco, California, 94122

    HAROLD E. VARMUS, WARREN E. LEVINSON & J. MICHAEL BISHOP

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VARMUS, H., LEVINSON, W. & BISHOP, J. Extent of Transcription by the RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase of Rous Sarcoma Virus. Nature New Biology 233, 19–21 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio233019a0

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