Of Swine and Men
Scientists study H1N1’s past to predict what the virus has in store
As viruses go, H1N1 is a genetic pip-squeak. Like its influenza brethren, it possesses only eight genes. Yet those few genes are telling researchers a complex story about where this newly infamous virus came from, and, more importantly, where it might go.
That story began about a decade ago, when an infectious virus was busily packing pieces of its genetic material together, preparing to burst out of a throat cell and infect other cells in its host pig. This virus was already the result of a genetic shuffle involving a human influenza, an avian influenza and a swine influenza, genetic sleuthing reveals. At the same time, a different virus — itself a mixture of a swine influenza and an avian influenza — was packaging its genetic material in the same cell in the pig’s throat.