Abstract
THE genome of influenza virus consists of eight distinct segments of single stranded RNA as determined by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels1–3. Each of these segments codes for one of the eight virus specified polypeptides4–9 and is therefore believed to be a single gene which functions by a monocistronic messenger RNA10. Because different strains of influenza may vary in base sequence homology9 or in the electrophoretic mobilities of their RNA segments and infected cell polypeptides11,12, it is often possible to determine the parental origin of every gene in an interstrain recombinant. Such procedures have been used to investigate the physiological properties associated with some of the influenza virus specified proteins9,13,14. I describe here the application of this approach to an investigation into the genetic control of host range. The results show that the difference in host range between two avian influenza viruses depends solely on the properties of one of the internal viral proteins associated with RNA polymerase activity.
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ALMOND, J. A single gene determines the host range of influenza virus. Nature 270, 617–618 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270617a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/270617a0
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