Question

Why is influenza virus having extremely high mutation rate?

Answer 1

High mutation rates due to virus has the ability to adapt and evade hosts immune system.when influenza virus infect host cells it tricks the cell into copying it's genome and assembling new virus particles know as progeny virions. Viral enzyme known as RNA polymerase work with molecular machinery in the host cell to copy viral RNA.how ever this enzyme makes mistake, leading to high rates of mutation in new new molecule.for measuring mutation rates sequencing the genome of virus then allow the virus to infect cells, sequencing the genome of progeny virions and lastly compare with original genome sequence to identify the mutation that arise during infection cycle.