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I don't believe that any DNA virus would replicate via a dsRNA intermediate, since that would be an unnecessary step and therefore anti-selective. You are correct that ssRNA viruses create a dsRNA template while replicating but I would think that this state is transient and therefore not a great target, unless this treatment can target dsRNA strands littered with replication forks.



Sorry, 'stage' was misleading. As described in the PLOS ONE article on this subject, they typically undergo symmetrical transcription. So more accurately, dsRNA & ssRNA viruses typically go through a dsRNA stage. DNA viruses typically produce dsRNA during transcription.




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