Prevalence of the C-terminal truncations of NS1 in avian influenza A viruses and effect on virulence and replication of a highly pathogenic H7N1 virus in chickens.

ABSTRACT: Highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza viruses (AIV) evolve from low pathogenic (LP) precursors after circulation in poultry by reassortment and/or single mutations in different gene segments including that encoding NS1. The carboxyl terminal end (CTE) of NS1 exhibits deletions between amino acid 202 and 230 with still unknown impact on virulence of AIV in chickens. In this study, NS1 protein sequences of all AIV subtypes in birds from 1902 to 2015 were analyzed to study the prevalence and distribution of CTE truncation (ΔCTE). Thirteen different ΔCTE forms were observed in NS1 proteins from 11 HA and 8 NA subtypes with high prevalences in H9, H7, H6 and H10 and N9, N2, N6 and N1 subtypes particularly in chickens and minor poultry species. With 88% NS217 lacking amino acids 218-230 was the

SUBMITTER: Abdelwhab el-SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5026787 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature