Influenza virus : the mechanism of genome packaging

甲型流感病毒的基因组包括8个负链RNA片段。虽然所有八个片段都必须存在于细胞中才能有效地进行病毒复制，但这些病毒RNA （vRNA）片段被整合到病毒粒子中的机制尚不完全清楚。在本研究中，我们发现A/WSN/33所有8个片段的编码区和非编码区两端的序列在这些vrna整合到流感病毒粒子中发挥重要作用。事实上，甲型流感病毒的电子显微镜显示，出芽病毒粒子含有8个核糖核蛋白（RNP）分子，表明RNP可能组装形成多片段大分子。这些发现表明，基因组包装步骤可能是开发抗病毒化合物的良好靶点。

The genome of influenza A viruses comprises eight negative-strand RNA segments. Although all eight segments must be present in cells for efficient viral replication, the mechanism(s) by which these viral RNA (vRNA) segments are incorporate into virions is not fully understood. In this study, we found that sequences at both ends of the coding and noncoding regions of all eight segments of A/WSN/33 play important roles in the incorporation of these vRNAs into influenza virions. Indeed, electron microscopy of influenza A virus has revealed that budding virions contain eight ribonucleoprotein (RNP) molecules, indicating that the RNPs likely assemble to form a multisegmented macromolecule. These findings indicated that the genome packaging steps could be excellent targets for the development of antiviral compounds.