The 50th anniversary of reverse transcriptase-and its ironic legacy in the time of coronavirus

On June 27, 1970, back‐to‐back papers were published in Nature presenting evidence that two oncogenic viruses contain an enzymatic activity that can synthesize a DNA strand from their RNA genome. The authors soberly referred to this activity as “RNA‐dependent DNA polymerase” but an editor (most likely the playful editor‐in‐chief John Maddox) coined the term “reverse transcriptase” How these two discoveries were made, and the antecedents of each, are fascinating and, what is more, relevant to enzymology now at play in the coronavirus pandemic