[Comparison of the synonymous and non-synonymous substitution rates in various regions of the neuraminidase and hemagglutinin genes of the influenza A virus].

A new, statistically justified approach was used to estimate the synonymous and non-synonymous substitution rates in several antigenic variants of influenza-virus surface proteins. The rates were compared for antigenic and nonantigenic regions of neuraminidase and hemagglutinin, as well as for neuraminidase surface and internal amino acids identified by X-ray analysis. For neuraminidase, the estimation was performed for the first time. The non-synonymous substitution rate was shown to be significantly higher in antigenic than in nonantigenic sites. However, neither subsample of antigenic sites displayed a fixation rate of non-synonymous substitutions higher than that of synonymous substitutions, which would confirm the effect of positive selection on these sites and argue against a neutral evolution character. Specific features of methods used to estimate the substitution fixation rates and problems in their interpretation are discussed.