reassortant

Further defense of the Chinese H1N1 – H5N1 study

7 Comments / Basic virology, Information / By

Robert Herriman of The Global Dispatch interviewed me this week on the H1N1 – H5N1 reassortant study that has been in the headlines: There was much written concerning the research published earlier this month in Science, where researchers from China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute reported creating an  avian H5N1 (highly pathogenic) and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (easily transmissible) hybrid, that according to them, achieved airborne spread between …

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Influenza H5N1 x H1N1 reassortants: ignore the headlines, it’s good science

24 Comments / Basic virology, Commentary, Information / By

Those of you with an interest in virology, or perhaps simply sensationalism, have probably seen the recent headlines proclaiming another laboratory-made killer influenza virus. From The Independent: ‘Appalling irresponsibility: Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus’; and from InSing.com: ‘Made-in-China killer flu virus’. It’s unfortunate that the comments of several …

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First human infections with avian influenza H7N9 virus

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Fourteen people in China have been infected with avian influenza H7N9 virus, leading to five deaths. This avian influenza virus has never been isolated from humans. Influenza A viruses with the H7 hemagglutinin protein circulate among birds, and some, such as H7N2, H7N3, and H7N7, have been previously found to infect humans. It is not known …

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Pandemic H1N1 influenza virus outcompetes seasonal strains in ferrets

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When more than one influenza A virus subtype is circulating in humans, as has been the case since 1977, there are several possible outcomes. The viruses might co-circulate, one virus might out-compete another, or co-infection of cells with two viruses can lead to the production of genetically distinct viruses by the process of reassortment of …

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Reassortment of the influenza virus genome

27 Comments / Basic virology, Information / By

Mutation is an important source of RNA virus diversity that is made possible by the error-prone nature of RNA synthesis. Viruses with segmented genomes, such as influenza virus, have another mechanism for generating diversity: reassortment. When an influenza virus infects a cell, the individual RNA segments enter the nucleus. There they are copied many times …

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