Abstract
ALL reactions involving reverse transcription of RNA are segre-gated from the cytosol within a subviral particle or capsid composed of the major capsid protein, the polymerase and the RNA tem-plate1. A key step in the formation of these particles is the selective encapsidation of the RNA template. Although an important gen-eral feature of the reverse transcription pathway, encapsidation has been carefully studied only for retrovirqses2–5. We have now examined the encapsidation reaction in a family of enveloped DNA viruses that replicate by reverse transcription—the hepatitis B viruses (hepadnaviruses). Our results indicate that the hepadnaviral polymerase (P) gene product is required for RNA packag-ing, and that the encapsidation function of the enzyme can be separated from its DNA polymerase activity. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a role for polymerase gene products in this step of the reverse transcription pathway.
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Hirsch, R., Lavine, J., Chang, Lj. et al. Polymerase gene products of hepatitis B viruses are required for genomic RNA packaging as well as for reverse transcription. Nature 344, 552–555 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344552a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/344552a0
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