Question

1. How retroviruses invade cells and reproduce

2. How what makes retroviruses

3. What cells HIV binds to and what receptors on these cells

Answer 1

1. Retroviruses have RNA as their genetic material and they also have reverse transcriptase enzyme which synthesises DNA from RNA . This DNA molecule attaches to the host cell genome and gets copied or new DNA molecules is formed . This DNA forms the new hiv virus and these new viruses move on to infect other normal cells.

2. Cannot understand your question

What i understand is that why retrovirus so called?

Retro viruses have an enzyme called reverse transcriptase which gives it an unique property to synthesise DNA from RNA . That is why it us called retrovirus.

3. HIV binds to T-cells (cd4+ t cells to be specific). There is a receptor called cd4 receptor which is used by the HIV to bind to the cells.