Low fidelity of cell-free DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase of human immunodeficiency virus

The fidelity of DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptases from human immunodeficiency virus and other retroviruses was compared by measuring the rates of misincorporation of dCMP in the place of TMP in cell-free DNA synthesis with polyadenylic acid as the template. The fidelity of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase was found to be about one-third of that of the reverse transcriptases of other retroviruses.