Influenza A Synthesis

Influenza A is an RNA virus and in general, RNA viruses have a very high rate of mutation, due to a lack of proofreading ability of RNA polymerase, leading to a rapid rate of viral evolution. However, influenza A’s ultimate beneficial feature is its segmented genome which consists of eight different linear negative-sense RNA strands encoding eleven proteins. These proteins include three RNA polymerases that function together as a complex required by the virus to replicate its RNA genome. These strands can combine with each other and create novel genotypes, an important mechanism for extremely rapid adaptation to new