About Virus

Structure and genome of HIV From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The genome and proteins of HIV have been the subject of extensive research since the discovery of the virus in 1983.[1][2] The discovery of the virus itself was not until two years after the first major cases of AIDS associated illnesses were reported in 1981.[3][4] Contents [hide] 1 Structure 2 Genome organization 3 RNA secondary structure 4 References 5 External links Structure Figure 1. Diagram of HIV HIV is different in structure from other retroviruses. It is around 120 nm in diameter (around 60 times smaller than a red blood cell) and roughly spherical. HIV-1 is composed of two copies of single-stranded RNA enclosed by a conical capsid comprising the viral protein p24, typical of lentiviruses (Figure 1). The RNA component is 9749 nucleotides long.[5] This is in turn surrounded by a plasma membrane of host-cell origin. The single-strand RNA is tightly bound to the nucleocapsid proteins, p6, p7 and en...