Beads on a String (IMAGE)

University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Beads on a String

Caption

Since the 1960s, science textbooks have depicted the 'beads on a string' model for the flu virus, showing proteins (the grey spheres) evenly coating RNA (the blue strand). University of Pittsburgh scientists recently discovered that the proteins don't evenly coat the RNA, leaving exposed loops that can bind different genetic material when two flu strains co-mingle inside a cell to form new flu strains that could spark pandemics.

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Credit: Nara Lee/Pitt

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