From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hepadnaviruses are the viruses in the family Hepadnaviridae. Hepadnaviruses cause liver infections in humans and animals. The best-known hepadnavirus is Hepatitis B virus.
Hepadnaviruses have very small genomes of circular, partially double-stranded DNA. They have a peculiar mode of replication, because they replicate through an RNA intermediate (which they translate back into DNA using reverse transcriptase. Because of this mode of replication, Hepadnaviruses are classified as RNA viruses.
