by Chuan-Liang Kao, Ta-Chien Chan, Chu-Han Tsai, Kuan-Ying Chu, Shu-Fang Chuang, Chang-Chun Lee, Zheng-Rong Tiger Li, Ko-Wen Wu, Luan-Yin Chang, Yea-Huei Shen, Li-Min Huang, Ping-Ing Lee, ChingLai Yang, Richard Compans, Barry T. Rouse, Chwan-Chuen King
The 2009 influenza pandemic provided an opportunity to observe dynamic changes of the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) of pH1N1 strains that spread in two metropolitan areas -Taipei and Kaohsiung. We observed cumulative increases of amino acid substitutions of both HA and NA that were higher in the post–peak than in the pre-peak period of the epidemic. About 14.94% and 3.44% of 174 isolates had one and two amino acids changes, respective, in the four antigenic sites. One unique adaptive mutation of HA2 (E374K) was first detected three weeks before the epidemic peak. This mutation evolved through the epidemic, and finally emerged as the major circulated strain, with significantly higher frequency in the post-peak period than in the pre-peak (64.65% vs 9.28%, p
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