RETROVIRUSES AND THEIR LIFE-CYCLE

Retroviruses have attracted a great deal of attention not only because of the fact that they cause AIDS and other serious human and animal d iseases but also because of their unique ability to convert the genomi c RNA into a double stranded DNA using reverse transcriptase. The revi ew presents the current understanding of the retroviral life-cycle and is also focused on differences in complexity and morphogenesis of ret roviral groups.