Now that we have examined influenza viral RNA synthesis, it’s a good time to step back and look at a very important property of this step in viral replication. All nucleic acid polymerases insert incorrect nucleotides during chain elongation. This misincorporation is one of the major sources of diversity that allows viral evolution to take …
On episode #31 of the podcast “This Week in Virology”, Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Marc Pelletier summarize the past week’s influenza H1N1 activity, and discuss parvovirus infection of dogs and humans. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV031.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #31
Once the (-) strand influenza viral RNAs enter the nucleus, they serve as templates for the synthesis of mRNAs. These molecules are then transported back to the cytoplasm, where they direct the synthesis of viral proteins. However, the mRNAs are not complete copies of the viral (-) strand RNAs – they are missing sequences from …
There are some interesting statistics on influenza in the current issue of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The first is this map showing the number of confirmed cases (N = 1,882) of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection worldwide as of May 6, 2009: With the exception of a few countries, the vast majority …
Recently I asked readers to identify errors in an animation of influenza virus replication. I am impressed with the number of good responses posted in the comments section. Here is a synopsis of the errors (there is more than one). 1. Influenza virus is released from cells by budding, not when the cells burst, as …
In “Influenza virus attachment to cells” we left the intact virion on the cell surface. The next step is that the viral genetic information – for influenza virus, the individual RNA segments – must enter the cell so that it can be reproduced. The mechanism for influenza virus, illustrated below, involves a step that is …
