RNA Can Be Used as a Template for the Production

Question

RNA can be used as a template for the production of DNA through the action of ____.  
A) DNA polymerase
B) RNA polymerase
C) reverse transcriptase
D) ligase
E) restriction endonuclease

Accepted Answer

Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme that can be used to synthesize a complementary DNA strand using RNA as a template. This process is called reverse transcription and is commonly used in research and biotechnology applications (such as in the production of complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries). DNA polymerase is an enzyme that can only synthesize a new DNA strand using an existing DNA template. RNA polymerase is an enzyme responsible for transcription (the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA template) and cannot be used to produce DNA. Ligase and restriction endonuclease are enzymes involved in DNA manipulation but are not relevant to this question.