In biochemistry, a reverse transcriptase, also known as RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, is a DNA polymerase enzyme that transcribes single-stranded RNA into single-stranded DNA. Normal transcription involves the synthesis of RNA from DNA, hence reverse transcription is the reverse of this.
Reverse transcriptase was discovered by Howard Temin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and independently by David Baltimore in 1970. The two shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Renato Dulbecco for their discovery.