Contribution of Segment 3 to the Acquisition of Virulence in Contemporary H9N2 Avian Influenza Viruses.

ABSTRACT: H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) circulate in poultry throughout much of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. These viruses cause huge economic damage to poultry production systems and pose a zoonotic threat both in their own right and in the generation of novel zoonotic viruses, for example, H7N9. In recent years, it has been observed that H9N2 viruses have further adapted to gallinaceous poultry, becoming more highly transmissible and causing higher morbidity and mortality. Here, we investigate the molecular basis for this increased virulence, comparing a virus from the 1990s and a contemporary field strain. The modern virus replicated to higher titers in various systems, and this difference mapped to a single amino acid polymorphism at position 26 of the endonuclease domain shared by t

SUBMITTER: Clements AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7527061 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature