"Study doubles avian flu genetic data: Genomic analysis of database might point to deadly mutations"

Read the full article by Susan Brown in The Scientist. (January 27, 2006.)

"By sequencing genes from a large and historic sample of avian influenza viruses, scientists say they have found a genetic marker that may determine which strains of bird flu are mild and which are deadly. The study, published online in this week’s Science, nearly doubles the amount of genetic information about the viruses, and introduces what the authors claim is a new approach to comparing genetic variation.......

"During the study, Clayton Naeve and colleagues at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee looked at 336 viral samples from wild birds and domestic poultry. The group sequenced more than 2,000 influenza genes and deposited the data -- including 168 complete genomes -- in GenBank."

The authors of the Science paper have suggested on gene that "may help explain why avian flu can be so lethal when it first infects humans." It seems likely that virologists will soon study the gene and its protein to confirm or reject the suggestion. The group "also found large variation in viral surface proteins – an expected finding, they said, given that influenza virus mutates rapidly to evade detection by the immune system."