Assessment of Quantitative Genetic Distances Supports the Separation of H17N10 and H18N11 Subtypes of Influenza A Virus into a Distinct Species
Ilya A. Volkhin, Mariia A. Dashian, Alexander N. Lukashev, German A. Shipulin, Andrei A. Deviatkin · 2026
Read Assessment of Quantitative Genetic Distances Supports the Separation of H17N10 and H18N11 Subtypes of Influenza A Virus into a Distinct Species by Ilya A. Volkhin, Mariia A. Dashian, Alexander N. Lukashev, German A. Shipulin, Andrei A. Deviatkin (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/PMC13517615.txt.
Description
Volkhin and colleagues published a 2026 study on whether two bat flu viruses deserve their own species. H17N10 and H18N11 flu viruses, found only in bats, sit awkwardly in current taxonomy. No hard numeric rule existed for drawing the species line here. The team compared 3,328 flu genomes from the full family.
Seven of eight genome segments split the bat pair cleanly from other flu types. Genetic gaps between groups ran far above the spread within groups. One segment broke the pattern, likely due to an ancient swap event. The bat viruses also cannot swap parts with standard flu viruses. Together, the numbers back a separate species for the pair. Selection-pressure ratios told the same split story as raw distances did.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ilya A. Volkhin, Mariia A. Dashian, Alexander N. Lukashev, German A. Shipulin, Andrei A. Deviatkin |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 38 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |