Hepatitis B Virus - (Oct/16/2008 )

I’ve been studying about the hepatitis B virus (VHB) and I am not sure the role of reverse transcriptase in VHB since it is a DNA virus.
I think that reverse transcriptase is used to produce cDNA from RNA so that it can be incorporated into the DNA of hepatocytes.

Am I correct? Is this the function of reverse transcriptase in VHB?

Thank you very much

EAG

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1) as far as i know hepatitis viruses do not have reverse transcriptase enzymes but DNA polymerases with reverse transcriptase activity so its a 2 in 1 enzyme

2) hepatitis does not incorporate its DNA into the host genome as its not a retro virus

3) when hepatitis infects a cell it injects its DNA into the hosts core.
the host then transcribes the viruses genome in one very long strand of mRNA and starts to build capsids and viral DNA polymerase enzymes.
this mRNA genome is then transcribed by the reverse transcriptase into a DNA copy

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Thank you for explanations.
From what I could learn so far I agree with the answers 1 and 3. However about the incorporation of HBV DNA in the host cell in accordance with the literature I have studied (example the pathology book Robbins) it can occur.

Thank you very much

EAG

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