The replication strategy of foamy viruses

Abstract

The replication strategy of foamy viruses diverges in many aspects from what is commonly accepted as the rules of retroviral replication. Although many questions on the details of the replication pathway are still unanswered, it appears that foamy viruses have adopted a strategy which functionally bridges the retroviral and the hepadnaviral replication pathways. A number of experimental findings in favour of the view that foamy viruses are reverse transcribing DNA viruses which integrate into the host cell genome are discussed.