Which of the following hepatitis viruses is a DNA virus
High-Yield Explanation
Hepas B virus ( HBV)
Hepas B virus is the most widespread virus and the most important cause of viral hepas.
HBV belongs to Hepadnaviridae
HBV is hepadnavirus type-1
Hepas B is the only hepas 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) → Parally 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 relies on reverse transcription of minus strand DNA from a pregenomic RNA intermediate (like retrovirus).