Phylogenetic evidence against evolutionary stasis and natural abiotic reservoirs of influenza A virus.

ABSTRACT: Zhang et al. (G. Zhang, D. Shoham, D. Gilichinsky, S. Davydov, J. D. Castello, and S. O. Rogers, J. Virol. 80:12229-12235, 2006) have claimed to have recovered influenza A virus RNA from Siberian lake ice, postulating that ice might represent an important abiotic reservoir for the persistence and reemergence of this medically important pathogen. A rigorous phylogenetic analysis of these influenza A virus hemagglutinin gene sequences, however, indicates that they originated from a laboratory reference strain derived from the earliest human influenza A virus isolate, WS/33. Contrary to Zhang et al.'s assertions that the Siberian "ice viruses" are most closely related either to avian influenza virus or to human influenza virus strains from Asia from the 1960s (Zhang et al., J. Virol. 81:2538

SUBMITTER: Worobey M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2268457 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature