Increased or decreased numbers of CpG dinucleotide motifs in the genome of influenza A virus do not affect in vitro virus phenotype
Balasubramanian Susma, Monique Spronken, Stefan van Nieuwkoop, Bernike Kalverda, Alexander P. Gultyaev, Ron A. M. Fouchier, Bernadette G. van den Hoogen · 2026
Read Increased or decreased numbers of CpG dinucleotide motifs in the genome of influenza A virus do not affect in vitro virus phenotype by Balasubramanian Susma, Monique Spronken, Stefan van Nieuwkoop, Bernike Kalverda, Alexander P. Gultyaev, Ron A. M. Fouchier, Bernadette G. van den Hoogen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13386996.txt.
Description
Balasubramanian Susma and colleagues test whether changing CpG motif counts alters flu virus behavior in a 2026 study. CpG pairs are scarce in influenza A genomes, and earlier work hinted that adding them weakens the virus. Prior results clashed, likely because designs differed, so the team guarded essential genome regions this time.
Mutants with more or fewer CpG motifs grew just as well as the parent virus in human airway cells. Innate immune activation also matched, and the changes stayed stable through repeated passages in two cell types. Under these controlled conditions, CpG count alone did not shift the viral phenotype.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Balasubramanian Susma, Monique Spronken, Stefan van Nieuwkoop, Bernike Kalverda, Alexander P. Gultyaev, Ron A. M. Fouchier, Bernadette G. van den Hoogen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 45594 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |