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          The changes in a continuously-evolving viral genome have made targeting specific viruses an almost impossible task to accomplish and can render vaccinations obsolete through one simple mutation. Viruses pose a threat to our population since virulent strains can emerge swiftly and subtly. These newly evolved strains could rapidly spread across countries and develop into a pandemic. In an effort to elucidate characteristics of their evolution, hierarchical clustering of Envelope glycoprotein, Hemagglutinin protein, and Glycoprotein NB involved in viral proliferation was conducted on strains of Ebola virus, Influenza virus A (strain A, H1N1 subtype) and Influenza virus B (strain B), respectively, in order to observe any trends or patterns that could provide insight on where or how they will manifest.

          To better understand the proliferative properties of viruses through time and space, the Ebola virus, Influenza virus A (strain A, H1N1) and Influenza virus B (strain B) were studied. Strains of these three viruses were selected because of their appearances in a wide range of locations throughout time, two significant factors considered in this study. An additional incentive in studying the temporal and geographical associations of the various strains within each of these three particular viruses comes from the fact that these viruses are often harmful to their human hosts(2,3). The analysis gained from this study may be valuable for future epidemiological or clinical studies in efforts to limit or eliminate the progressions of these viruses. A viral entry protein from each of these three viruses was chosen as the focus of our study because proteins on the host-virus interface reflect the adaptations of changing environments incurred by the virus(1).

          In our study, we tested if a geographical or temporal pattern could be identified from clustering amino acid frequency data from proteins involved in viral entry found in the three viruses mentioned earlier. To test this hypothesis, the amino acid frequencies were calculated for sequences of a viral protein from different strains of each of the three viruses mentioned. The frequencies were then clustered for each virus using Gene Cluster 3.0 software. Cluster results of each virus were analyzed for indications of whether or not time and/or place of isolation played an important role in determining the cluster relationships of the viral protein from different strains of the viruses considered. We found evidence for both year and location of isolation playing a major role in the hierarchical organization of all three viruses.

Introduction

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