CD4 and infection: HIV reverse transcription is slowed down in quiescent cells, thereby preventing the formation of a full-length double stranded DNA species4,52,53 and consequently taking around 3–5 days for completion.54,55 Thus, in vitro infection of resting CD4 T cells results in the production of early reverse transcripts that can be marker of early infection.54–56 We found that these transcripts are detected in all the T-cell subpopulations starting at day 7 (Fig. 1b).