A new piece in the puzzle of the novel avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus

Abstract

Using phylogenetic analysis on newly available sequences, we characterize A/chicken/Jiangsu/RD5/2013(H10N9) as currently closest precursor strain for the NA segment in the novel avian-origin H7N9 virus responsible for an outbreak in China. We also show that the internal segments of this precursor strain are closely related to those of the presumed precursor for the HA segment, A/duck/Zhejiang/12/2011(H7N3), which indicates that the sources of both HA and NA donors for the reassortant virus are of regional and not migratory-bird origin and highlights the role of chicken already in the early reassortment events. Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Prof Xiufan Liu (nominated by Dr Purificacion Lopez-Garcia) and Prof Sandor Pongor. © 2013 Lee et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.