Characterization of H5N1 Influenza Virus Quasispecies with Adaptive Hemagglutinin Mutations from Single-Virus Infections of Human Airway Cells.

ABSTRACT: Transmission of avian influenza (AI) viruses to mammals involves phylogenetic bottlenecks that select small numbers of variants for transmission to new host species. However, little is known about the AI virus quasispecies diversity that produces variants for virus adaptation to humans. Here, we analyzed the hemagglutinin (HA) genetic diversity produced during AI H5N1 single-virus infection of primary human airway cells and characterized the phenotypes of these variants. During single-virus infection, HA variants emerged with increased fitness to infect human cells. These variants generally had decreased HA thermostability, an indicator of decreased transmissibility, that appeared to compensate for their increase in α2,6-linked sialic acid (α2,6 Sia) binding specificity and/or in the membr

SUBMITTER: Watanabe Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5952156 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature