AiMAdvances in Microbiology2165-3402Scientific Research Publishing10.4236/aim.2015.59068AiM-59209ArticlesBiomedical&Life Sciences Diversity of the RNA Polymerase in the H7N9 Influenza A Virus ingLi1WenjunLiu1CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China24082015050966166720 July 2015accepted 24 August 27 August 2015© Copyright 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. 2014This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A novel influenza virus of the H7N9 subtype has infected more than 350 people in China since 19 February 2013. Evolutionary analysis indicates that the virus is a reassortant originated from H7, N9 and H9N2 avian influenza viruses, and bears some amino acids associated with mammalian receptor binding, raising concern over the possibility of a new influenza pandemic. Besides HA and NA, the mutation of the polymerase is known to have an important role in virulence, host adaptation and transmissibility in mammalians. In this article, the annotation of the polymerase protein domain associated with molecular function has been highlighted, suggesting the combination of RNA polymerase of H7N9 viruses is still not stable for host adaptation. In addition, the mutation hallmarks in polymerase gene of H7N9 are compared, providing the potential determinants of the evolution in the H7N9 influenza A virus.

Diversity RNA Polymerase H7N9 Influenza A VirusAcknowledgements

The study was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31402216), the National Key Technologies Research and Development Program of China (2013ZX10004-610), China Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Project 973 (Grant No. 2011CB504705), Intramural special grant for influenza virus research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-L09-2), the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSZD-EW-Z-005-001). WJL is principal investigators of the NSFC Innovative Research Group (Grant No. 81321063).

Cite this paper

JingLi,WenjunLiu, (2015) Diversity of the RNA Polymerase in the H7N9 Influenza A Virus. Advances in Microbiology,05,661-667. doi: 10.4236/aim.2015.59068

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