# Could radioactivity mutate flu strains?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-radioactivity-mutate-flu-strains/614625>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 3, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-radioactivity-mutate-flu-strains/614625 "2012-03-03T06:13:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-radioactivity-mutate-flu-strains/614625/1 "2012-03-03T06:13:43Z")

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Not in a bad fifties sci-fi kind of way. More of a natural RNA mutation kind of way, only in an unexpected way? Say, if a bird flu bird from China flies over to Fukishima? We know that the natural progression of inter-species flu strains require, at some point, a mutation. Would a radioactive environment, such as the one around Fukishima, encourage flu strain mutations?

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-radioactivity-mutate-flu-strains/614625/2 "2012-03-03T15:19:59Z")

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Disclaimer: IANAVirologist

The direct answer is yes - it is replicating DNA, radiation will cause mutations in that DNA …

but

the radiation induced mutations will be occurring at a level vastly lower than the replication mutations already occurring during normal viral activity.

> [@](#):
>
> Given a typical RNA viral genome of 10,000 bases, a mutation frequency of 1 in 10,000 corresponds to an average of 1 mutation in every replicated genome. If a single cell infected with poliovirus produces 10,000 new virus particles, this error rate means that in theory, about 10,000 new viral mutants have been produced. This enormous mutation rate explains why RNA viruses evolve so readily. For example, it is the driving force behind influenza viral antigenic drift.
> 
> from [Virology Blog](http://www.virology.ws/2009/05/10/the-error-prone-ways-of-rna-synthesis/)

This is always been the major problem (and humanities salvation, too) with influenza viruses - viral DNA replication is pretty rubbish, so the viral strains are constantly changing causing problems for our immune system. But it is also why a lethal strain occasionally pops up in the population (both avian and human). However, because the virus does not replicate reliably, lethal strains fairly quickly mutate into less-lethal strains. Variants of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic are still circulating, but with much lower lethality. It is only occasionally that you get the combination of human morbidity and transmission that defines a pandemic.

Si