Positive selection results in frequent reversible amino acid replacements in the G protein gene of human respiratory syncytial virus.

ABSTRACT: Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children under 5 years of age and the elderly, causing annual disease outbreaks during the fall and winter. Multiple lineages of the HRSVA and HRSVB serotypes co-circulate within a single outbreak and display a strongly temporal pattern of genetic variation, with a replacement of dominant genotypes occurring during consecutive years. In the present study we utilized phylogenetic methods to detect and map sites subject to adaptive evolution in the G protein of HRSVA and HRSVB. A total of 29 and 23 amino acid sites were found to be putatively positively selected in HRSVA and HRSVB, respectively. Several of these sites defined genotypes and lineages within genotypes in both groups, and correla

SUBMITTER: Botosso VF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2603285 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature