Abstract

Swine appear to be a key species in the generation of novel human influenza pandemics. Previous pandemic viruses are postulated to have evolved in swine by reassortment of avian, human, and swine influenza viruses. The human pandemic influenza viruses that emerged in 1957 and 1968 as well as swine viruses circulating since 1998 encode PB1 segments derived from avian influenza viruses. Here we investigate the possible role in viral replication and virulence of the PB1 gene segments present in two swine H1N2 influenza A viruses, A/swine/Sweden/1021/2009(H1N2) (sw 1021) and A/swine/Sweden/9706/2010(H1N2) (sw 9706), where the sw 1021 virus has shown to be more pathogenic in mice. By using reverse genetics, we swapped the PB1 genes of these two viruses. Similar to the sw 9706 virus, chimeric sw 1021 virus carrying the sw 9706 PB1 gene was not virulent in mice. In contrast, replacement of the PB1 gene of the sw 9706 virus by that from sw 1021 virus resulted in increased pathogenicity. Our study demonstrated that differences in virulence of swine influenza virus subtype Hi N2 are attributed at least in part to the PB1 segment. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

H1N2; Swine influenza virus; Reverse genetics; PB1 segment; Virulence

Published in

Virus Research
2014, Volume: 188, pages: 97-102
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Metreveli, Giorgi

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

• Berg, Mikael

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Medical Bioscience


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2014.03.023

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68206