Comment on "Large-scale sequence analysis of avian influenza isolates".
Obenauer et al. (Research Articles, 17 March 2006, p. 1576) reported that the influenza A virus PB1-F2 gene is evolving under strong positive selection, as documented by an extremely high ratio of the number of nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions to the number of synonymous substitutions (dN/dS). However, we show that this observation is likely to be an artifact related to the location of PB1-F2 in the +1 reading frame of the PB1 gene.
Holmes
Edward C
EC
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Lipman
David J
DJ
Zamarin
Dmitriy
D
Yewdell
Jonathan W
JW
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000821:virology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005814:Genes, Viral; D009980:Influenza A virus / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D016364:Reading Frames; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
C442816:PB1-F2 protein, Influenza A virus; D014764:Viral Proteins