Genetic diversity and evolutionary dynamics of influenza viruses circulating within and/or between humans and animal reservoirs. unidentified influenza virus

The accumulation of mutations at antigenic sites (antigenic drift) and the reassortment of segments with differing evolutionary history (antigenic shift) allows Influenza Viruses to continually evade the host immune response. As part of this collaborative project with multiple Influenza research groups, we plan to sequence the entire genome of the Influenza A and B Viruses (IAV and IBV), with the following aims: 1) characterize the temporal and spatial evolutionary dynamics of the IAVs and IBVs circulating globally in humans and IAVs in wild birds, 2) identify the IAV genotypes circulating in pigs at county fairs (swine-human interface) to determine if fairs produce novel reassortants or enable zoonosis/reverse zoonosis, 3) determine if specific internal gene segment constellations enhance viral fitness, 4) detect epistatic interactions between gene segments, and 5) assess the impact of inter-hemispheric migration of primarily avian viruses/gene segments.