How does the process work? How do they exchange genetic material and how does that exchange influence their infectivity and lethality?
Edit: Also, I think I may have mixed up reassortment with recombination here
In: Biology
Flu viruses inject their DNA into the soup of the host cell, which is then replicated alongside the necessary proteins. These DNA and proteins are then encapsulated within a small bubble of the host cell’s membrane, which is pinched off to become a new virus. If the same cell is infected by two or more viruses of appropriately similar form, that pinching off process can simply encapsulate a few of the wrong DNA strands. There’s not really an exchange of material going on, rather, the viruses are dismantling themselves when they infect a cell, and the mechanisms that build new viruses are sorting the first few strands of DNA they find (within the restrictions they’re looking for), going “This’ll do” and packaging those into a virus.
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