Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), a member of the family Birnaviridae, is responsible for a highly contagious and economically important disease causing immunosuppression in chickens. IBDV variants isolated in the United States exhibit antigenic drift affecting neutralizing epitopes in the capsid protein VP2. To understand antigenic determinants of the virus, we have used a reverse-geneti...

We purified the major influenza virus nonstructural protein, designated NS1, from cytoplasmic inclusions that were solubilized and used to raise antisera in rabbits. One of the antisera was found to be specific for NS1 by complement fixation tests and analyses of immune precipitates. Antiserum to NS1 isolated from cells infected with A/WSN/33 virus specifically precipitated NS1 from extracts of...

FMDV virus has been increasingly recognised as the most economically severe animal virus with a remarkable degree of antigenic diversity. Using an integrative evolutionary and computational approach we have compelling evidence for heterogeneity in the selection forces shaping the evolution of the seven different FMDV serotypes. Our results show that positive Darwinian selection has governed the...

Influenza virus generates most new antigenic variants in two ways, either by antigenic drift of the Haemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA) or by antigenic shift involving genomic reassortment. Influenza pandemics like those that occurred in 1957 and 1968 are thought to have involved reassortment of HA and NA genes between human and avian or swine viruses. The factors controlling reassortmen...

Abstract The biggest challenge in developing a universal influenza vaccine is the extensive antigenic drift. In contrast to humoral immunity, cell-mediated immunity more cross-reactive and can protect against various subtypes drift variants. Our research group has described computationally optimized broadly reactive antigens (COBRA) develop HA-based protective vaccine. However, studies that cha...