LetterInfluenza (commonly known as ”the flu”) has 4 types - out of which 3 (A/B/C) infect humans [1]. Influenza A and B genomes each have 8 negative-sense, single-stranded viral RNA segments (C has a 7-segment genome) [2]. Two of these segments - glycoproteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase on the surface of the virus - are used to subtype the virus [3]. The ability of these segments to mix and match (HxNx, currently there are 129 subtypes) creates a constantly mutating virus - making it difficult to devise an effective virus [4, 5]. Also, the hemagglutinin gene causes aberrant coagulation leading to a hyper-inflammatory response [6].Lab-edited influenza viruses in circulationThis is compounded by the escape of viruses being modified in laboratories that are trying to enhance the speed of development of therapeutics. For example, Covid19 patients from Wuhan and Hong Kong were infected with Influenza A appended with DNA-expression vector sequences facilitating protein transcrip- tion (18s) [7]. In another example, canine 28s was found to be integrated with Influenza A genomes in patients from Hong Kong [8]. Madin Darby canine kidney cell-lines are used to make Influenza vaccines, suggesting that some of these viruses might have escaped into circulation. ”Flucelvax Quadrivalent is the only cell-based inactivated flu vaccine that has been licensed by the FDA for use in the United States.” (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/cell-based.htm)H3N2 genomic reads have sequence fragments that match to Escherichia phage Lambda (among others)Here, Influenza samples isolated from human respiratory tract 2014-2015 from New York (Accid:PRJNA431639 [9], n=122) shows the integration of some sequence fragments matching to the Escherichia phage Lambda ev017 (Accid:NC 049948.1) in all of the eight fragments. In order to exclude the possibility of sequencing artifacts, only the occurrence of exact reads in different samples were recorded (Table 1).SPADES assembler generates full length segments along with the Escherichia phage LambdaThe SPADES assembler [10] makes full length segments from these sequences (SI:spades.contigs.fa) showing the same integration. Fig 1 shows these exogenous sequences flanking a full length polymerase PA (segment 3) - note how the ends have complimentary runs of TTT (UUU) and AAA, which helps the RNA fold onto itself, probably helping better packing.
Complete Genome Sequence of Klebsiella pneumoniae Myophage Mulock
