Negative-sense

Negative-sense

Negative-sense (3′-to-5′) viral RNA must first be transcribed into a positive-sense RNA that acts as an mRNA. Like DNA, negative-sense RNA has a nucleotide sequence complementary to the mRNA that it encodes; also like DNA, this RNA cannot be translated into protein directly. Some viruses (e.g. influenza viruses) have negative-sense genomes and so must carry an RNA polymerase inside the virion.