Variation in nucleotide sequences coding for the N-terminal regions of the matrix and nonstructural proteins of influenza A viruses

Nucleotide sequences have been determined for complementary DNA transcribed from the 3' ends of RNA segments 7 (matrix gene) and 8 (nonstructural gene) from a number of human influenza A viruses isolated over a period of 43 years and representing H0N1, H1N1, H2N2, and H3N2 subtypes. The pattern of nucleotide variation in both genes suggests that RNA segments 7 and 8 were conserved during the reassortment events which were responsible for the antigenic shifts H1N1 leads to H2N2 and H2N2 leads to H3N2. During the 23-year period between the isolation of A/PR/8/34(H0N1) and A/RI/5-/57(H2N2), substitutions have occurred at 7 of 230 nucleotides in RNA segment 7 and 13 of 220 nucleotides in RNA segment 8, and in 20 years A/RI/5-/57(H2N2) to A/Canberra Grammar/77(H3N2) substitutions have occurred at 5 of 230 nucleotides in RNA segment 7 and 12 of 220 nucleotides in RNA segment 8. These give rise to 2 of 67, 5 of 64, 1 of 67, and 5 of 64 amino acid changes, respectively. The number of nucleotide and amino acid changes observed is of the same order of magnitude as that which occurs over a comparable period of drift in RNA segments 4 and 6, which code for the variable antigenic determinants hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.