Question

Differentiate Between Retrovirus And Provirus?



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Answer 1

Explanation:

The key difference between provirus and retrovirus is that provirus is a stage of viral replication which shows the integrated state of viral genome with host genome while retrovirus is an RNA virus that has the ability to convert its RNA genome into DNA intermediate by enzyme reverse transcriptase.

Viruses are tiny infectious particles that are able to replicate inside a living organism. Therefore, they are obligate intracellular parasites. They can infect almost all living organisms, including animals, plants, fungi, protozoa and bacteria. Thus, they are the causative agents of many deadly diseases, including HIV, polio, rubella, hepatitis, etc. Furthermore, they are microscopic particles composed of protein capsids and DNA or RNA genome. Their genome can be single-stranded or double-stranded, circular or linear. Retrovirus is a group of viruses. These viruses possess a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and genes coding for reverse transcriptase enzyme. Hence, they are capable of replicating via an intermediate of DNA. In contrast, the provirus is a stage of viral replication

Answer 2

$\large\bold{Provirus}$

• A provirus is a stage of viral replication inside the host. In this stage, the virus genome exists integrated with the host genome.
• Provirus refers to a viral genome inserted into genomic DNA of a eukaryotic host cell. Proviruses and prophages are similar structures, but provirus differs from prophage due to that fact that provirus integrates the viral genome into a eukaryotic genome while prophage selects bacterial genome as their host.
• Provirus can act as an endogenous viral element for longer periods of time, which has the potential of causing infection.
• The common example is endogenous retroviruses which are always present in a stage of the provirus.

$\large\bold{Retrovirus}$

• A retrovirus is a viral group which possesses a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome. They contain an enzyme called reverse transcriptase and their replication occurs via a DNA intermediate.
• The production of an intermediate DNA during the replication is unique to this group of viruses.