Abstract
Influenza B viruses cause a significant amount of morbidity and mortality. The occurrence of homologous recombination in influenza viruses is controversial. To determine the extent of homologous recombination in influenza B viruses, recombination analyses of 2,650 sequences representing all eight segments of the influenza B viruses were carried out. Only four sequences were indentified as putative recombinants, which were verified using phylogenetic methods. However, the mosaics detected here were much likely to represent cases of laboratory-generated artificial recombinants. As in other myxoviruses, it is unlikely that homologous recombination plays a major role in influenza B virus evolution.
Highlights
Influenza B viruses cause substantial morbidity and mortality in humans
Boni et al demonstrate that homologous recombination is very rare or absent in human influenza A viruses through analyzing a data set of 13,852 sequences representing all eight RNA segments and of both major circulating subtypes, H3N2 and H1N1 [9]
To access whether homologous RNA recombination plays a role in the evolution of influenza B viruses, we compiled a data set of 2,650 sequences (PB2, 224; PB1, 230; PA, 230; HA, 330; NP, 236; NA, 687; MP, 332; NS, 381) representing all eight RNA segments
Summary
Influenza B viruses cause substantial morbidity and mortality in humans. As a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family, influenza B virus possesses a single-stranded and segmented genome of negative sense. There is ample evidence that various forms of non-homologous recombination, albeit rarely, occurs in influenza viruses [4,5,6]. For influenza A viruses, Gibbs et al proposed that homologous recombination had occurred in the HA gene of 1918 Spanish flu virus [7].
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