Reassortment of segmented viruses can be an important source of genetic diversity underlying viral evolution and emergence. Methods for the quantification of reassortment have been described but are often cumbersome and best suited for the analysis of reassortment between highly divergent parental strains. While it is useful to understand the potential of divergent parents to reassort, outcomes of such heterologous reassortment are driven by differential selection acting on the progeny and are typically strain specific. To quantify reassortment robustly, a system free of differential selection is needed. We have generated such a system for influenza A virus and for mammalian orthoreovirus by constructing well-matched parental viruses carrying small genetic tags. The method utilizes high-resolution melt technology for the identification of reassortant viruses. Ease of sample preparation and data analysis enables streamlined genotyping of a large number of virus clones. The method described here thereby allows quantification of the efficiency of reassortment and can be applied to diverse segmented viruses.

中文翻译：

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分段病毒中重组的无偏定量方法。

分段病毒的重排可能是潜在的病毒进化和出现的遗传多样性的重要来源。已经描述了用于定量重配的方法，但是这些方法通常很麻烦并且最适合用于分析高度不同的亲本菌株之间的重配。虽然了解不同亲本重排的潜力很有用，但这种异源重排的结果是由作用于后代的差异选择驱动的，并且通常是菌株特异性的。为了可靠地量化重配，需要一个没有差分选择的系统。通过构建携带小遗传标签的匹配良好的亲本病毒，我们已经产生了针对甲型流感病毒和哺乳动物正咽病毒的系统。该方法利用高分辨率熔解技术来鉴定重配病毒。易于样品制备和数据分析，可简化大量病毒克隆的基因分型。因此，此处描述的方法可量化重配效率，并可应用于多种分段病毒。