Hi all! I'm an undergraduate doing some work in a retrovirology lab dedicated to HIV research. My PI assigned us undergraduates with studying HIV's replication process, and specifically raised the question of how is it that the provirus is longer in length than the viral genomic RNA.

I've been trying to do some research on the subject, and from what I understand it has to do with the LTR regions flanking both ends of the provirus, but I haven't been able to find anything specific enough that leads to enough of an understanding. I was hoping someone here might be able to provide a decent explanation of this phenomenon.

Much obliged!