Amino acid substitutions in the H5N1 avian influenza haemagglutinin alter pH of fusion and receptor binding to promote a highly pathogenic phenotype in chickens.

ABSTRACT: Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses cause devastating outbreaks in farmed poultry with serious consequences for animal welfare and economic losses. Zoonotic infection of humans through close contact with H5N1 infected birds is often severe and fatal. England experienced an outbreak of H5N1 in turkeys in 1991 that led to thousands of farmed bird mortalities. Isolation of clonal populations of one such virus from this outbreak uncovered amino acid differences in the virus haemagglutinin (HA) gene whereby the different genotypes could be associated with distinct pathogenic outcomes in chickens; both low pathogenic (LP) and high pathogenic (HP) phenotypes could be observed despite all containing a multi-basic cleavage site (MBCS) in the HA gene. Using reverse genetics, three amino a

SUBMITTER: Sealy JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8742987 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature