Antigenic shift: A sudden shift in the antigenicity of a virus resulting from the recombination of the genomes of two viral strains. Antigenic shift is seen only with influenza A viruses. It results usually from the replacement of the hemagglutinin (the viral attachment protein that also mediates the entry of the virus into the cell) with a novel subtype that has not been present in human influenzaviruses for a long time. The source of these new genes is the large reservoir of influenzaviruses in waterfowl. The consequences of the introduction of a new hemagglutinin into human viruses is usually a pandemic, or a worldwide epidemic.
Library > Science > Sci-Tech Dictionary ( ′an·tə¦jen·ik ′shift ) ( virology ) An abrupt major change in the antigenicity of a virus; believed to result from ...
Antigenic shift: A sudden shift in the antigenicity of a virus resulting from the recombination of the genomes of two viral strains. Antigenic shift is seen only with ...
Antigenic shift is the process by which two or more different strains of a virus, or strains of two or more different viruses, combine to form a new subtype having a ...
Imagine that the year is 1919. You have just survived one of the greatest infectious disease disasters of the 20th century. Twenty million people world-wide (500,000 ...
Antigenic Drift vs. Antigenic Shift Antigenic Drift. Antigenic 'drift' occurs in HA and NA, and is associated with seasonal epidemics. Each year's flu vaccine contains ...