Which of the following hepatitis viruses is a DNA virus ?
High-Yield Explanation
Ans. is 'b' i.e., Hepatitis B virus Hepatitis B virus (HBV) Hepatitis B virus is the most widespread virus and the most impoant cause of viral hepatitis. o HBV belongs to Hepadna viridae HBV is hepadnavirus type -1 Hepatitis B is the only hepatitis virus which has DNA. All others are RNA viruses. HBV contains two linear strands of DNA. One of the strands (the plus strand) is incomplete and other is complete (the minus strand) - Paially double stranded DNA. HBV contains both DNA-dependent DNA polymerase and RNA dependent reverse transcriptase. Instead of DNA replication directly from a DNA template, HBV relys on reverse transcription of minus strand DNA from a pregenomic RNA intermediate (like retrovirus).