Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Virology

Influenza's tale of tails

Nature volume 483, pages 416–417 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Epigenetics is a hot new research field, but it seems that the influenza virus already has it figured out. By mimicking epigenetic regulation in human cells, one flu strain suppresses the expression of antiviral genes. See Article p.428

Influenza virus infections are sometimes severe, or even deadly, but most people recover within a few days, helped by their body's immune system. Yet this apparently simple interaction between the virus and its host is deceptive. Influenza viruses are, in fact, masters at circumventing their hosts' defences — they co-opt cellular protein-synthesis pathways to produce viral proteins, for example, and antagonize aspects of the immune response. On page 428 of this issue, Marazzi et al.1 describe another viral evasion tactic. They show that an influenza protein called NS1 mimics a host-cell histone protein that is involved in regulating gene expression. By hijacking this regulatory machinery, the virus inhibits the cell's production of antiviral proteinsFootnote 1.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Interfering influenza.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper1 under discussion were published online on 14 March 2012.

References

  1. Marazzi, I. et al. Nature 483, 428–433 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Berger, S. L. Nature 447, 407–412 (2007).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ng, S. S., Yue, W. W., Oppermann, U. & Klose, R. J. Cell Mol. Life Sci. 66, 407–422 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. García-Sastre, A. Virus Res. 162, 12–18 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jaehning, J. A. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1799, 379–388 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kash, J. C. et al. Nature 443, 578–581 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kawaoka, Y. Nature 482, 155 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alexei L. Krasnoselsky and Michael G. Katze are in the Department of Microbiology and Washington National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-8070, USA.,

    Alexei L. Krasnoselsky & Michael G. Katze

Authors
  1. Alexei L. Krasnoselsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael G. Katze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alexei L. Krasnoselsky or Michael G. Katze.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Krasnoselsky, A., Katze, M. Influenza's tale of tails. Nature 483, 416–417 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11034

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11034

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing