Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Isolation of Fidelity Variants of RNA Viruses and Characterization of Virus Mutation Frequency
Published on: June 16, 2011
Comparison of the mutation rates of human influenza A and B viruses
1Department of Microbiology and Infection, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kawasumi 1, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya City 467-8601, Japan. nobusawa@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Abstract:
Human influenza A viruses evolve more rapidly than influenza B viruses. To clarify the cause of this difference, we have evaluated the mutation rate of the nonstructural gene as revealed by the genetic diversity observed during the growth of individual plaques in MDCK cells. Six plaques were studied, representing two strains each of type A and B viruses. A total of 813,663 nucleotides were sequenced, giving rates of 2.0 x 10(-6) and 0.6 x 10(-6) mutations per site per infectious cycle, which, when extended to 1 year, agree well with the published annual evolutionary rates.
Related Concept Videos
Viral Mutations
Influenza
Viral Recombination
Leaky Scanning
Bacteriophages of the Human Virome
Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...

