Extrapolating from sequence—the 2009 H1N1 'swine' influenza virus (original) (raw)

Nature Biotechnology volume 27, pages 510–513 (2009)Cite this article

To the editor:

The recent incidence and spread in humans of the 'swine flu' influenza A virus has raised global concerns regarding its virulence and pandemic potential. The main cause of the so-called swine flu has been identified as human infection by influenza A viruses of a new H1N1 (hemagglutinin 1, neuraminidase 1) subtype, or '2009 H1N1 strain'. The first cases of human infection were reported in April in the Mexican town of La Gloria in Veracruz; soon after, reported infections occurred in areas of southern California and Texas. Several recent studies have focused on the necessary determinants for human adaptation and efficient human-to-human transmission of the H1N1 influenza A viruses1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Here, using a representative 2009 H1N1 strain as our starting point, we offer a perspective on the likely human adaptation and transmissibility of 2009 H1N1 viruses.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge support from the Singapore–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance for Research and Technology; and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (GM 57073 andU54 GM62116) to R.S.

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Author notes

  1. Venkataramanan Soundararajan and Kannan Tharakaraman: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
    Venkataramanan Soundararajan, Kannan Tharakaraman, Rahul Raman, S Raguram, Zachary Shriver, V Sasisekharan & Ram Sasisekharan

Authors

  1. Venkataramanan Soundararajan
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  2. Kannan Tharakaraman
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  3. Rahul Raman
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  4. S Raguram
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  5. Zachary Shriver
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  6. V Sasisekharan
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  7. Ram Sasisekharan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence toRam Sasisekharan.

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Soundararajan, V., Tharakaraman, K., Raman, R. et al. Extrapolating from sequence—the 2009 H1N1 'swine' influenza virus.Nat Biotechnol 27, 510–513 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0609-510

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