During the infection cycle for a typical retrovirus, such as HIV, which uses RNA as genetic material, the genetic variation in the resulting population of new virus particles is very high because of

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Reverse transcription does not involve proofreading and can be prone to errors.

Viruses are typically not damaged during the infection stage.

Translation is done by the host cell, and the process is typically efficient and not prone to errors.

The viral genome is incorporated into the host genome. It is not free to recombine with other viral particle genomes.