Viral RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of RNA tumour viruses.

In 1970 Baltimore and Temin discovered that certain viruses that have their genes in the form of RNA can copy the RNA "backward" into DNA in infected cells. The enyzme, reverse transcriptase, enables the manufacture of specific proteins for use as medicines.

Baltimore, who was the only author of this paper, shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with R. Dulbecco and H. M. Temin "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell."