Influenza A virus undergoes compartmentalized replication in vivo dominated by stochastic bottlenecks.

ABSTRACT: Transmission of influenza A viruses (IAV) between hosts is subject to numerous physical and biological barriers that impose genetic bottlenecks, constraining viral diversity and adaptation. The bottlenecks within hosts and their potential impacts on evolutionary pathways taken during infection are poorly understood. To address this, we created highly diverse IAV libraries bearing molecular barcodes on two gene segments, enabling high-resolution tracking and quantification of unique virus lineages within hosts. Here we show that IAV infection in lungs is characterized by multiple within-host bottlenecks that result in "islands" of infection in lung lobes, each with genetically distinct populations. We perform site-specific inoculation of barcoded IAV in the upper respiratory tract of ferret

SUBMITTER: Amato KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9197827 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature