Structure and Reassortment of the Influenza Virus genome

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) can infect humans and important livestock species, such as chickens and pigs. From 2003 to 2012 over 400 million birds were culled to attempt to limit the spread of influenza viruses, making IAVs a significant threat to animal health and global food security. IAVs have a segmented genome with 8 strands of negative sense RNA. When two or more IAVs infect the same cell different combinations of these genome segments can be packaged together, in a process termed reassortment. Reassortment can lead to the generation of new strains which have the potential to cause epidemics and pandemics. Recent data has indicated that RNA-RNA interactions between the IAV genome segments may be key in their assembly into virions. In this project the manner in which these RNA-RNA interactions facilitate packaging of the IAV genome will be further investigated, as well as the role they play in reassortment. In the future this work could aid in predicting the emergence of new strains of IAVs to inform vaccination efforts.
BBSRC Priority areas addressed: Animal Health and Global Food Security