Compensatory evolution of net-charge in influenza A virus hemagglutinin.

ABSTRACT: The propagation of influenza A virus depends on the balance between the activities of hemagglutinin (HA) for binding to host cells and neuraminidase (NA) for releasing from infected cells (HA-NA balance). Since the host cell membrane and the sialic acid receptor are negatively charged, the amino acid substitutions increasing (charge+) and decreasing (charge-) the positive charge of HA subunit 1 (HA1) enhance and reduce, respectively, the binding avidity and affinity. The positive charge of HA1 in human influenza A virus bearing subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2 virus) was observed to have increased during evolution, but the evolutionary mechanism for this observation was unclear because this may disrupt the HA-NA balance. Here we show, from the phylogenetic analysis of HA for human A/H3N2 and A/H1N1 vi

SUBMITTER: Kobayashi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3395715 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature