Taxon Details

Taxon name: Retroviridae

from the Latin retro, meaning “backwards”, referring to the activity of reverse transcriptase which transfers genetic information from RNA “back” to DNA during replication of viruses in the family; the suffix -viridae for family taxa

ICTV Report: Retroviridae Created in Proposal: Ratification_1975.pdf Reference: PMID: 21433350

International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

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Support is provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Award U24AI162625