The contrasting phylodynamics of human influenza B viruses
- Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
- University of Sydney, Australia
- J Craig Venter Institute, United States
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
- Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Australia
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Switzerland
- Royal Children's Hospital, Australia
- Westmead Hospital, Australia
- National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Disease, New Zealand
- Canterbury Health Laboratories, New Zealand
- Prince of Wales Hospital, Australia
- Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, United States
Abstract
A complex interplay of viral, host and ecological factors shape the spatio-temporal incidence and evolution of human influenza viruses. Although considerable attention has been paid to influenza A viruses, a lack of equivalent data means that an integrated evolutionary and epidemiological framework has until now not been available for influenza B viruses, despite their significant disease burden. Through the analysis of over 900 full genomes from an epidemiological collection of more than 26,000 strains from Australia and New Zealand, we reveal fundamental differences in the phylodynamics of the two co-circulating lineages of influenza B virus (Victoria and Yamagata), showing that their individual dynamics are determined by a complex relationship between virus transmission, age of infection and receptor binding preference. In sum, this work identifies new factors that are important determinants of influenza B evolution and epidemiology.
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© 2015, Vijaykrishna et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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The contrasting phylodynamics of human influenza B viruses
eLife 4:e05055.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05055
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