http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/do-viruses-help-explain-the-origin-of-life/
Cells could not have evolved without viruses, as they need reverse transcriptase (which is found only in viruses) in order to move from RNA to DNA.
In other words, instead of helping to solve the problem of the origin of life on Earth, recent research has only served to highlight one of its central paradoxes. And yet the science media reports the latest discoveries as if the solution is just around the corner. Don’t you find that just a little strange?
“In order to move from RNA to DNA, you need an enzyme called reverse transcriptase,” Dolja said. “It’s only found in viruses like HIV, not in cells. So how could cells begin to use DNA without the help of a virus?”
Creation of double-stranded DNA occurs in the cytosol as a series of these steps:
A specific cellular tRNA acts as a primer and hybridizes to a complementary part of the virus RNA genome called the primer binding site or PBS
Complementary DNA then binds to the U5 (non-coding region) and R region (a direct repeat found at both ends of the RNA molecule) of the viral RNA
A domain on the reverse transcriptase enzyme called RNAse H degrades the 5’ end of the RNA which removes the U5 and R region
The primer then ‘jumps’ to the 3’ end of the viral genome and the newly synthesised DNA strands hybridizes to the complementary R region on the RNA
The first strand of complementary DNA (cDNA) is extended and the majority of viral RNA is degraded by RNAse H
Once the strand is completed, second strand synthesis is initiated from the viral RNA
There is then another ‘jump’ where the PBS from the second strand hybridizes with the complementary PBS on the first strand
Both strands are extended further and can be incorporated into the hosts genome by the enzyme integrase
Creation of double-stranded DNA also involves strand transfer, in which there is a translocation of short DNA product from initial RNA dependent DNA synthesis to acceptor template regions at the other end of the genome, which are later reached and processed by the reverse transcriptase for its DNA-dependent DNA activity
http://elshamah.heavenforum.org/t2028-origin-of-the-dna-double-helix
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