Identifying the genetic basis of antigenic change in influenza A(H1N1)

Bibliographic Details
Title: Identifying the genetic basis of antigenic change in influenza A(H1N1)
Authors: Harvey, William T., Gregory, Victoria, Benton, Donald J., Hall, James P. J., Daniels, Rodney S., Bedford, Trevor, Haydon, Daniel T., Hay, Alan J., McCauley, John W., Reeve, Richard
Source: PLoS Pathogens (2016) 12(4): e1005526
Publication Year: 2014
Collection: Quantitative Biology
Subject Terms: Quantitative Biology - Populations and Evolution, Quantitative Biology - Quantitative Methods
More Details: Determining phenotype from genetic data is a fundamental challenge. Influenza A viruses undergo rapid antigenic drift and identification of emerging antigenic variants is critical to the vaccine selection process. Using former seasonal influenza A(H1N1) viruses, hemagglutinin sequence and corresponding antigenic data were analyzed in combination with 3-D structural information. We attributed variation in hemagglutination inhibition to individual amino acid substitutions and quantified their antigenic impact, validating a subset experimentally using reverse genetics. Substitutions identified as low-impact were shown to be a critical component of influenza antigenic evolution and by including these, as well as the high-impact substitutions often focused on, the accuracy of predicting antigenic phenotypes of emerging viruses from genotype was doubled. The ability to quantify the phenotypic impact of specific amino acid substitutions should help refine techniques that predict the fitness and evolutionary success of variant viruses, leading to stronger theoretical foundations for selection of candidate vaccine viruses.
Document Type: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005526
Access URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.4197
Accession Number: edsarx.1404.4197
Database: arXiv
More Details
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005526