Role of receptor specificity and membrane fusion activity of influenza viruses in host range, cell tropism and pathogenicity (B02)

The project will use a panel of well-defined recombinant influenza A viruses (IV) to study how properties of viral hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) affect viral infection, cytotoxicity and induction of biological responses in cells of human innate immune system (monocytes, dendritic cells, macrophages and neutrophils). As a second goal, the project will characterize phenotypes of 16 amino acid substitutions in the HA and NA that occurred during natural transmission and adaptation of an avian H1N1 virus to swine in Europe in 1979 and will identify which of these substitutions were critical for the emergence of the novel swine-adapted virus.

DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Subproject of SFB 1021:  RNA Viruses: RNA Metabolism, Host Response and Pathogenesis

Applicant Institution Philipps-Universität Marburg

Project Heads Professor Dr. Stefan Bauer, since 1/2017; Mikhail Matrosovich, Ph.D.