Genome analysis of epidemic influenza virus strains isolated in 1979-1983.

Comparative studies on the electrophoretic mobility of double-stranded RNA segments constructed of the genome of isolates under study and of reference influenza virus strains of respective serotypes are suggestive for the evolution of majority of the genes of both A and B influenza viruses, including their genes coding for non-glycosylated proteins. Among influenza A and B virus strains which were circulating during the same epidemic, there were variants differing from each other in a number of genes including those coding for virion internal proteins. A recombinant (reassortant) detected among the influenza virus strains, which circulated in Moscow in 1979, contained the genes 4, 6, 7 and 8 identical with those of the reference H1N1 strain, and the genes 1, 2, 3 and 5 identical with those of the reference H3N2 strain. Comparative analysis of reference influenza virus strains, both the H3N2 serotype (being isolated from 1968 to 1979) and the H1N1 serotype (being isolated from 1977 to 1980) differing in the antigenic specificity of their haemagglutinin (HA) suggested the increasing variability of either genes coding for glycoproteins as well as for non-glycosylated proteins.