RNA pol, replication fidelity

[Marla Brunker]

Scott A Hoffman <schoffma at badlands.nodak.edu> writes:
 
>RNA viruses (most notably Ebola and Dengue) show a high replication 
>fidelity.  This is interesting since to my understanding RNA viruses tend 
>toward high rates of mutation, the idea is that the replicative machinery 
>is inefficient.  The question of course is why?  Why, should one virus 
>show high rates of mutation and others not.  Is there any evidence that 
>the replicative machinery (RNA pol, etc.)  of some viruses are more 
>efficient.  Is there something inherent in the secondary structure of 
>some viruses that may lead to lowered mutation rates.  To what degree 
>does natural selection play a role?  I could envision a situtation in 
 
	This isn't any kind of answer to your question but...if the
reverse transcriptase from these viruses is more efficient than what's
available commercially (my Boehringer-Mannheim catalogue lists two, one
from avian myeloblastosis virus and a recombinant MMuLV RT)
would it be worth the bother of figuring out how to produce this
recombinantly?