Evolutionary network to predict the reassortment of avian-human A/H5N1 influenza virus in India

Abstract

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) A/H5N1 virus has posed a great threat to humans with its high rate of fatality and mortality. These viruses have different segments in its genome. The evolution of these viruses involves mutation and reassortment, where these segments are interchanged among viruses and co-infect the host called mixing vessel for the reassortment of viruses. In this study, the viral strain of the Hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the surface protein of human A/H5N1 virus is analyzed by diversification rate to produce the evolutionary network among the viruses of several countries. The evolutionary network obtained provides the information about the evolution of reassorted viruses. Results suggested that the various viruses of Indian isolates are clustered well with the viruses of other countries indicating the transmission of viruses from these places to India. It is also observed that the reassortment between the pairs of sequences of (human USA-1918, avian West Bengal 2008) and (human USA-1918, human Cambodia-2011) can occur to create new pandemic H5N1 viruses and hence better understanding is required to control the emergence of these new viruses in India. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.