Viruses: Life Cycle and Disease · USMLE Step 1

Influenza virus requires which process to produce infectious progeny due to its segmented genome?

  1. Antigenic drift
  2. Antigenic shift
  3. Frameshift mutation
  4. Rolling-circle replication
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Correct answer: Antigenic shift

Antigenic shift results from reassortment of influenza's segmented RNA genome. This leads to major antigenic changes and pandemics.

Difficulty: Medium Question 4 of 20

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