Reassortoitumisen

Reassortoitumisen, often translated as reassortment or genetic reassortment, is a process in virology where two or more different strains of a segmented virus infect the same host cell. Segmented viruses, such as influenza viruses, have their genetic material divided into multiple pieces, with each piece often encoding a different gene or set of genes. When a single cell is infected by two or more of these segmented viruses simultaneously, their respective genetic segments can mix and be packaged into new progeny viruses.

This mixing results in the generation of novel virus strains that possess a combination of genes from the original infecting viruses. For example, a human influenza virus and an avian influenza virus could infect a pig cell. The resulting offspring viruses could then carry some segments from the human strain and some from the avian strain.

Reassortment is a significant driver of genetic diversity in segmented viruses and plays a crucial role in the emergence of new viral strains. This is particularly important for influenza viruses, as reassortment can lead to the creation of novel influenza strains that human populations may have little or no pre-existing immunity to, potentially causing pandemics. The process is distinct from mutation, which involves changes within existing genetic segments.