The proteins that make up the influenza viral particle differ depending on which species the virus was generated in.
The composition of a virus is important for its ability to infect and spread. Edward Hutchinson, Ervin Fodor and their colleagues at the University of Oxford, UK, used mass spectrometry to identify and quantify the proteins in seven different flu viruses derived from either mammalian tissue or chicken eggs. The authors found a common core architecture of proteins, but some components were unique to the host.
The finding suggests that flu vaccines grown in chicken eggs or mammalian tissue could have different compositions.
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Flu virus comes in various flavours. Nature 513, 462 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/513462d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/513462d
