Reverse transcriptase/ribonuclease H (RT) is a multifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of the retro-elements RNA genome into dsDNA within the VLP. The enzyme displays a DNA polymerase activity that can copy either DNA or RNA templates, and a ribonuclease H (RNase H) activity that cleaves the RNA strand of RNA-DNA heteroduplexes during plus-strand synthesis and hydrolyzes RNA primers. The conversion leads to a linear dsDNA copy of the retrotransposon that includes long terminal repeats (LTRs) at both ends (By similarity).