Editing Reverse transcriptase (section)

== History ==
Reverse transcriptases were discovered by [[Howard Temin]] at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in ''[[Rous sarcoma virus|Rous sarcoma]]'' virions<ref name="pmid4316301">{{cite journal | vauthors = Temin HM, Mizutani S | title = RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of Rous sarcoma virus | journal = Nature | volume = 226 | issue = 5252 | pages = 1211–3 | date = June 1970 | pmid = 4316301 | doi = 10.1038/2261211a0 | s2cid = 4187764 }}</ref> and independently isolated by [[David Baltimore]] in 1970 at [[MIT]] from two RNA tumour viruses: [[murine leukemia virus]] and again [[Rous sarcoma virus]].<ref name="pmid4316300">{{cite journal | vauthors = Baltimore D | title = RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of RNA tumour viruses | journal = Nature | volume = 226 | issue = 5252 | pages = 1209–11 | date = June 1970 | pmid = 4316300 | doi = 10.1038/2261209a0 | s2cid = 4222378 }}</ref> For their achievements, they shared the 1975 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] (with [[Renato Dulbecco]]).

Well-studied reverse transcriptases include:
* HIV-1 reverse transcriptase from [[HIV|human immunodeficiency virus]] type 1 ({{PDB|1HMV}}) has two subunits, which have respective molecular weights of 66 and 51 [[kilodalton|kDas]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ferris AL, Hizi A, Showalter SD, Pichuantes S, Babe L, Craik CS, Hughes SH | title = Immunologic and proteolytic analysis of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase structure | journal = Virology | volume = 175 | issue = 2 | pages = 456–64 | date = April 1990 | pmid = 1691562 | doi = 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90430-y | url = http://www.craiklab.ucsf.edu/docs/pub47.pdf }}</ref>
* M-MLV reverse transcriptase from the [[murine leukemia virus|Moloney murine leukemia virus]] is a single 75 kDa monomer.<ref name="Konishi_2012">{{cite journal | vauthors = Konishi A, Yasukawa K, Inouye K | title = Improving the thermal stability of avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase α-subunit by site-directed mutagenesis | journal = Biotechnology Letters | volume = 34 | issue = 7 | pages = 1209–15 | date = July 2012 | pmid = 22426840 | doi = 10.1007/s10529-012-0904-9 | hdl = 2433/157247 | s2cid = 207096569 | url = http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/157247/1/s10529-012-0904-9.pdf | hdl-access = free }}</ref>
* AMV reverse transcriptase from the [[Alpharetrovirus|avian myeloblastosis virus]] also has two subunits, a 63 kDa subunit and a 95 kDa subunit.<ref name="Konishi_2012"/>
* [[Telomerase reverse transcriptase]] that maintains the [[telomere]]s of [[eukaryotic]] [[chromosomes]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Autexier C, Lue NF | title = The structure and function of telomerase reverse transcriptase | journal = Annual Review of Biochemistry | volume = 75 | issue = 1 | pages = 493–517 | date = June 2006 | pmid = 16756500 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.biochem.75.103004.142412 }}</ref>