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World J Virol. Sep 25, 2021; 10(5): 256-263
Published online Sep 25, 2021. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v10.i5.256
Ambisense polarity of genome RNA of orthomyxoviruses and coronaviruses
Oleg Zhirnov
Oleg Zhirnov, Gamaleya Microbiology and Epidemiology Research Center, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow 123098, Russia
Author contributions: Zhirnov O is the author of the idea; Zhirnov O has prepared the manuscript text and all materials, has formulated the conclusions and scientific content of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares that he does do not have any conflict of interest. The author declares that he has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Oleg Zhirnov, DSc, MD, PhD, Professor, Gamaleya Microbiology and Epidemiology Research Center, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, 16 Gamaleya Street, Moscow 123098, Russia. zhirnov@inbox.ru
Received: March 23, 2021
Peer-review started: March 23, 2021
First decision: May 5, 2021
Revised: May 17, 2021
Accepted: July 26, 2021
Article in press: July 26, 2021
Published online: September 25, 2021
Processing time: 176 Days and 21 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: A novel genes identified in viral genomes in opposite direction, as positive in influenza and negative in coronaviruses, are considered. The identified novel genes colocolized in the same RNA regions of viral genomes, where the previously known opposite genes are encoded, a so-called ambisense stacking architecture of genes in virus genome. It seems likely, that ambisense gene stacking in influenza and coronavirus families significantly increases genetic potential and virus diversity to extend virus-host adaptation pathways in nature. These data imply that ambisense viruses may have a multivirion mechanism, like "a dark side of the Moon", allowing production of the heterogeneous population of virions expressed through positive and negative sense genome strategies.