Evolutionary interactions between haemagglutinin and neuraminidase in avian influenza.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Reassortment between the RNA segments encoding haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), the major antigenic influenza proteins, produces viruses with novel HA and NA subtype combinations and has preceded the emergence of pandemic strains. It has been suggested that productive viral infection requires a balance in the level of functional activity of HA and NA, arising from their closely interacting roles in the viral life cycle, and that this functional balance could be mediated by genetic changes in the HA and NA. Here, we investigate how the selective pressure varies for H7 avian influenza HA on different NA subtype backgrounds.

Results

By extending Bayesian stochastic mutational mapping methods to calculate the ratio of the rate of non-synonymous change to th

SUBMITTER: Ward MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3854068 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature