Recombinomics Options VI Manuscript at Nature Precedings
Recombinomics Commentary
July 27, 2007
Recombinomics has submitted a manuscript representing data presented at the Options for the Control of Influenza VI meeting held June 17-23, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The data were presented in abstracts entitled “H5N1 Clade 2.2 Polymorphism Tracing Identifies Influenza Recombination and Potential Vaccine Targets” and “Emergence and Convergence of H5N1 Clade 2.2 Hemagglutinin M230I in Egypt".
A preprint of the manuscript has been made available at Nature Precedings. This site allows for open access of manuscripts at various stages of the peer review process. Included at the site is a manuscript entitled “Swine Influenza A Evolution Via Recombination – Genetic Drift Reservoir” and “Concurrent Acquisition of a Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Diverse Influenza H5N1 Clade 2.2 Sub-clades. The swine paper was also presented at the Options VI meeting under the title, “Canadian Swine H1N1 and H1N2 Evolution Via Recombination.”
The data presented in these papers seriously challenges on of the basic tenets of influenza genetics, which maintains that influenza genes drift via a series of random mutations, in association with positive selection / adaptation. However, the data demonstrates clear cut recombination in the swine sequences, and demonstrates absolute fidelity in replication for periods exceeding 25 years. The long segments of identity in these influenza genes provide positive data supporting error free copying.
The data in the “Concurrent Acquisition” paper describes the distribution of a single nucleotide polymorphism onto six distinct Cade 2.2 sub-clades in three different countries (Russia, Egypt, and Ghana). The appearance of the same polymorphisms on these diverse genetic backgrounds is not easily explained by “random mutations.”
Additional data in the submitted manuscripts details aggregation of a series of additional SNPs onto the hemagglutinin gene of the fatal human cases reported in Nigeria. The data details twelve distinct polymorphisms aggregating onto the same gene segment. The polymorphisms include regional markers from Germany, Egypt, and sub-Sahara Africa. This aggregation is also not easily explained by a “random mutation” explanation. These examples will be delineated in more detail in an additional manuscript in preparation.
These data will seriously challenge a “random mutation” explanation of influenza evolution, and will support evolution via exchange of SNPs by recombination, which applies to influenza and all rapidly evolving genomes, representing a paradigm shift in how evolution is viewed.
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