Question

Retroviruses produces many proteins from a single initial transcript. Which mechanism does it NOT use?

a) Protease digestion to process initial protein into several smaller proteins
b) Suppression of the STOP codon or frame-shifting
c) The env gene splicing out
d) Removal of the introns through the splicing of mRNA

Answer 1

Retroviruses like HIV do not use the mechanism of removing introns through mRNA splicing since their RNA genome does not contain introns.

Step-by-step explanation:

Retroviruses produce many proteins from a single initial transcript by a series of mechanisms. However, the mechanism it does NOT use is the removal of introns through the splicing of mRNA. Retroviruses, such as HIV, contain an RNA genome that is reverse transcribed into DNA, which then is incorporated into the host's DNA using enzymes such as reverse transcriptase. Further processes include protease digestion for protein processing, RNA splicing for mRNA maturation, and possibly suppression of the stop codon or frame-shifting. However, since retroviruses do not have introns in their RNA, removal of introns is not part of their replication process.