Coupling high-throughput genetics with phylogenetic information reveals an epistatic interaction on the influenza A virus M segment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Epistasis is one of the central themes in viral evolution due to its importance in drug resistance, immune escape, and interspecies transmission. However, there is a lack of experimental approach to systematically probe for epistatic residues.

Results

By utilizing the information from natural occurring sequences and high-throughput genetics, this study established a novel strategy to identify epistatic residues. The rationale is that a substitution that is deleterious in one strain may be prevalent in nature due to the presence of a naturally occurring compensatory substitution. Here, high-throughput genetics was applied to influenza A virus M segment to systematically identify deleterious substitutions. Comparison with natural sequence variation showed that a del

SUBMITTER: Wu NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4710013 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature