Reduced accumulation of defective viral genomes contributes to severe outcome in influenza virus infected patients
Fig 2
Defective genomes are produced during influenza virus infection and are incorporated into virions.
(A) Primers used in PCR to detect the viral genome (black) or DVGs (red). (B) Detection of DVGs (top) or viral genome (bottom) of the PA segment in virions of supernatants from F- or M-infected cell cultures. Asterisks denote bands corresponding to cloned and sequenced DVGs. (C) Detection of DVGs (top) or viral genome (bottom) of the PA segment in virions of supernatants from three independent plaque purified clones (.1, .2, .3) of F- or M-IAV. Asterisk denotes a band corresponding to cloned and sequenced DVG. (D) Accumulation of DVGs after serial blind passages of clone M-IAV.1 and F-IAV.2. Serial passages of each clone were repeated twice (P1-3.1 and P1-3.2). B-D, DNA ladder size indicated in nucleotides.