Changes

Reverse transcriptase is prone to making errors in transcription. Sometimes these errors will inactivate the retrovirus' genes and the host cell will not produce new viruses. These [[mutation|mutated]] strands of retrovirus DNA are still integrated in the host genome. In some cases in a multicellular organism this will be in a [[germ line]] cell. This means that the any offspring created from that germ line cell will have the inactivated retrovirus gene in its genome. These are referred to as [[Endogenous retrovirus | endogenous retroviral insertions]], it has been estimated that up to 10 percent of the human genome consists of these types of inserts. These insertions have recently become important in constructing [[phylogenetic tree]]s.

Reverse transcriptase is prone to making errors in transcription. Sometimes these errors will inactivate the retrovirus' genes and the host cell will not produce new viruses. These [[mutation|mutated]] strands of retrovirus DNA are still integrated in the host genome. In some cases in a multicellular organism this will be in a [[germ line]] cell. This means that the any offspring created from that germ line cell will have the inactivated retrovirus gene in its genome. These are referred to as [[Endogenous retrovirus | endogenous retroviral insertions]], it has been estimated that up to 10 percent of the human genome consists of these types of inserts. These insertions have recently become important in constructing [[phylogenetic tree]]s.