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VOL.439 NO.7075 DATED 26 JANUARY 2006
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* Influenza: Flu virus innards revealed
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[3] Influenza: Flu virus innards revealed (pp490-492)
A study published in this week's Nature takes a detailed look inside the
influenza virus - and the view could help determine how the pathogen
replicates inside cells.
Researchers have known for some time that the influenza virus genome is
broken up into eight RNA segments packaged with proteins (to form
ribonucleoprotein complexes, or RNPs), somewhat like the packaging of human
chromosomes - but there has been a long-standing controversy about whether
these segments are incorporated randomly or selectively into new viral
particles inside an infected cell.
That puzzle is solved by Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues, who show, by
electron microscopy, that the RNPs of the influenza virus are organized into
a distinct pattern of seven segments surrounding a central one. This
suggests that each RNP carries a signal that helps the virus select and
package a complete set of RNPs when it is replicating, and the authors
suggest that this knowledge might speed the development of antiviral
compounds.
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