H1N1 influenza adopted novel strategy to move from birds to humans

The H1N1 influenza virus has found a new strategy to jump from birds into humans. researchers from Berkley in California show that the swine flu virus adopted a new mutation in one of its genes, one thta is distinct from the mutations found in other previous flu viruses. Some of these included the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, the Asian flu pandemic in 1957 and the Hong Kong pandemic of 1968. It now has a second mutation that is suppressing the ability of human cells to prevent the bird polymerase from working. "This is an extremely rare mutation and a rare combination, which suggests that there may be other ways that haven't emerged yet that these viruses are going to continue to evolve," said Jennifer Doudna, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

link:http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/12/09/h1n1_influenza_adopted_novel_strategy_to_move_from_birds_to_humans.html