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RNA viruses can exchange genetic material during coinfection, an interaction that creates novel strains with implications for viral evolution and public health. Influenza A viral genetic exchange can occur when genome segments from distinct strains reassort in coinfected cells. Predicting potential genomic reassortment between influenza strains has been a long-standing goal. Experimental coinfection studies have shed light on factors that limit or promote reassortment. However, determining the reassortment potential between diverse Influenza A strains has remained elusive. To address this challenge, we developed a high throughput genotyping approach to quantify reassortment among a diverse panel of human influenza virus strains encompassing two pandemics (swine and avian origin), three specific epidemics, and both circulating human subtypes A/H1N1 and A/H3N2. We found that reassortment frequency (the proportion of reassortants generated) is an emergent property of specific pairs of strains where strain identity is a predictor of reassortment frequency. We detect little evidence that antigenic subtype drives reassortment as intersubtype (H1N1xH3N2) and intrasubtype reassortment frequencies were, on average, similar. Instead, our data suggest that certain strains bias the reassortment frequency up or down, independently of the coinfecting partner. We observe that viral productivity is also an emergent property of coinfections, but uncorrelated to reassortment frequency; thus viral productivity is a separate factor affecting the total number of reassortants produced. Assortment of individual segments among progeny and pairwise segment combinations within progeny generally favored homologous combinations. These outcomes were not related to strain similarity or shared subtype but reassortment frequency was closely correlated to the proportion of both unique genotypes and of progeny with heterologous pairwise segment combinations. We provide experimental evidence that viral genetic exchange is potentially an individual social trait subject to natural selection, which implies the propensity for reassortment is not evenly shared among strains. This study highlights the need for research incorporating diverse strains to discover the traits that shift the reassortment potential to realize the goal of predicting influenza virus evolution resulting from segment exchange.

Kishana Taylor works in the field of virology. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on the personal impact of “Racial health disparities and COVID-19 – caution and context” by Merlin Chowkwanyun and Adolph L. Reed, Jr. (N Engl J Med 383:201–203, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2012910 ) and “A hypothesis is a liability” by Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher (Genome Biol 21:231, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02133-w ) and how it became part of the mission for Black In Microbiology Week. Kishana Taylor works in the field of virology. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on the personal impact of “Racial health disparities and COVID-19 – caution and context” by Merlin Chowkwanyun and Adolph L. Reed, Jr. (N Engl J Med 383:201–203, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2012910 ) and “A hypothesis is a liability” by Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher (Genome Biol 21:231, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02133-w ) and how it became part of the mission for Black In Microbiology Week.

In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open data, equity and interdisciplinary collaboration, to the development and application of those tools? What effect could the technology have on global health? Who would control that technology, who would have access to it and who would benefit from it? Would it improve pandemic prevention? Could it create new challenges? This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.

Dr. Kishana Taylor (a microbiologist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California, Davis), Dr. Nella Vargas-Barbosa (an electrochemist and Scientist at the Max Planck Institute) and Dr. Anouk Beniest (a geologist and Postdoctoral Researcher at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel) talked to Nature Communications about their recent experiences at virtual conferences as early career researchers, since the onset of international COVID-19 travel restrictions. Kishana, Nella and Anouk share tips for navigating virtual conferences as junior researchers, and they also give suggestions for conference organizers to improve virtual scientific meetings so they more inclusive for younger scientists.

RNA viruses can exchange genetic material during coinfection, an interaction that creates novel strains with implications for viral evolution and public health. Influenza A viral genetic exchange occurs when genome segments from distinct strains reassort in coinfection. Predicting potential reassortment between influenza strains is a longstanding goal. Experimental coinfection studies have shed light on factors that limit or promote reassortment. However, determining the reassortment potential between diverse Influenza A strains has remained an elusive goal. To fill this gap, we developed a high throughput genotyping approach to quantify reassortment among a diverse panel of human influenza virus strains, encompassing 41 years of epidemics, multiple geographic locations, and both circulating human subtypes A/H1N1 and A/H3N2. We found that the reassortment rate (proportion of reassortants) is an emergent property of a pair of strains where strain identity is a predictor of the reassortment rate. We show little evidence that antigenic subtype drives reassortment as intersubtype (H1N1xH3N2) and intrasubtype reassortment rates were, on average, similar. Instead, our data suggest that certain strains bias the reassortment rate up or down, independently of the coinfecting partner. We also observe that viral productivity is an emergent property of coinfections and that it is not correlated to reassortment rate, thus affecting the total number of reassortant progeny produced. Assortment of individual segments among progeny, and pairwise segment combinations within progeny, were not random and generally favored homologous combinations. This outcome was not related to strain similarity or shared subtype. Reassortment rate was closely correlated to both the proportion of unique genotypes and the proportion of progeny with heterologous pairwise segment combinations. We provide experimental evidence that viral genetic exchange is potentially an individual social trait subject to natural selection, which implies the propensity for reassortment is not evenly shared among strains. This study highlights the need for research incorporating diverse strains to discover the traits that shift the reassortment potential as we work towards the goal of predicting influenza virus evolution resulting from segment exchange. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has created a need for effective personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent viral spread. PPE like face masks contain the spread of virus-filled droplets and thus reduce infection rates, has been a critical tool in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2. PET plastic barriers have also been used in public settings to reduce face to face viral transmission. However, in some cases, they have provided additional contact with the virus due to contamination. In order study, we evaluated the effectiveness of face masks and PET plastics coated in different metals in reducing viral load. We compared PPE printed with silver, copper, or zinc for their ability to inactivate live human coronavirus HCoV 229E. Our results show that silver and copper have significant anti-viral efficacy when printed on nonwoven fabric compared to the controls. The metal-printed PET showed around 70% anti-viral efficacy with any formulations, with copper performing the best. This work builds more data to support the development of metal printed materials for enhanced protection against coronaviruses.