Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a complex RNA virus of the genus Lentivirus within the Retroviridae family. HIV is an approximately 100 nm icosahedral structure with 72 external spikes that are formed by the two major envelope glycoproteins gp120 and gp41.
The lipid bilayer is also studded with a number of host-cell proteins during the budding process. HIV has a characteristic dense, cone-shaped nucleocapsid composed of the core protein p24. This nucleocapsid harbours two identical copies of the 9.8 kb single-stranded positive polarity RNA genome which are associated with the viral enzymes reverse transcriptase (RT), RNase H, integrase and protease.
HIV encodes 3 structural genes and 6 regulatory genes.
#basicStructureOfHIV
#HIVstructureAndImportance