Swine Flu Gene Sequence Registry

Researchers following the Swine Flu outbreak can access the latest swine influenza A (H1N1) gene sequences on GenBank, at the NCBI website. So far over two dozen sequences from strains isolated in Texas and California have been posted. Sequences for eight different genes have been listed, including genes for a nuclear export protein (NEP), nucleocapsid protein (NP), matrix proteins (MP), several polymerases and the two glycoproteins: hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) that determine the subtype of the Influenza A virus. Influenza virus genes consist of negative-strand RNA.

The gene sequencing is being done at the J. Craig Venter Institute and is part of a project funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), through the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, with the objective of helping scientists quickly identify emerging strains and develop vaccines.