• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

The effects of a deleterious mutation load on patterns of influenza A/H3N2's antigenic evolution in humans

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
Elife. 2015 Sep 15;4. doi: 10.7554/eLife.07361. [Epub ahead of print]
[h=1]The effects of a deleterious mutation load on patterns of influenza A/H3N2's antigenic evolution in humans.[/h] Koelle K[SUP]1[/SUP], Rasmussen DA[SUP]1[/SUP].
[h=3]Author information[/h]

[h=3]Abstract[/h] Recent phylogenetic analyses indicate that RNA virus populations carry a significant deleterious mutation load. This mutation load has the potential to shape patterns of adaptive evolution via genetic linkage to beneficial mutations. Here, we examine the effect of deleterious mutations on patterns of influenza A subtype H3N2's antigenic evolution in humans. By first analyzing simple models of influenza that incorporate a mutation load, we show that deleterious mutations, as expected, act to slow the virus's rate of antigenic evolution, while making it more punctuated in nature. These models further predict three distinct molecular pathways by which antigenic cluster transitions occur, and we find phylogenetic patterns consistent with each of these pathways in influenza virus sequences. Simulations of a more complex phylodynamic model further indicate that antigenic mutations act in concert with deleterious mutations to reproduce influenza's spindly hemagglutinin phylogeny, co-circulation of antigenic variants, and high annual attack rates.


[h=4]KEYWORDS:[/h] antigenic evolution; deleterious mutations; epidemiology; global health; influenza evolution; phylodynamics; viruses

PMID: 26371556 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Free full text
 
Back
Top Bottom