HIV: A deadly invasion

HIV viewed from inside an immune cell, as the RNA-containing conical capsid is injected into the cytoplasm. HIV is “frozen” until its infective lifecycle is “ignited” by dNTPs, which are at a high enough concentration inside the cell to trigger reverse transcription of the RNA genome. The puff of smoke represents an error by the sloppy reverse transcriptase, allowing rapid HIV evolution and HIV’s “wildfire” effects on humanity.