Home › MCQs › MBBS › Question #10370
Back to Questions
MBBS QUESTION #10370
Question 1
Reverse transcriptase, an enzyme essential to retroviral replication (e.g., HIV) and widely exploited in molecular biology techniques (e.g., cDNA synthesis from mRNA), catalyzes:
  • DNA-dependent RNA synthesis
  • RNA-dependent DNA synthesis✔️
  • RNA-dependent RNA synthesis exclusively
  • Direct protein synthesis using an RNA template
Correct Answer Explanation
Reverse transcriptase synthesizes a complementary DNA strand using an RNA template — the reverse of the 'normal' central dogma flow of information (DNA to RNA) — allowing retroviruses to integrate a DNA copy of their RNA genome into host chromosomal DNA.