Function
The enzyme helps viruses to be released from a host cell. Influenza virus membranes contain two glycoproteins: hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. While the hemagglutinin on the surface of the virion is needed for infection, its presence inhibits release of the particle after budding. Viral neuraminidase cleaves terminal neuraminic acid (also called sialic acid) residues from glycan structures on the surface of the infected cell. This promotes the release of progeny viruses and the spread of the virus from the host cell to uninfected surrounding cells. Neuraminidase also cleaves sialic acid residues from viral proteins, preventing aggregation of viruses.
Read more about this topic: Viral Neuraminidase
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Every boy was supposed to come into the world equipped with a father whose prime function was to be our father and show us how to be men. He can escape us, but we can never escape him. Present or absent, dead or alive, real or imagined, our father is the main man in our masculinity.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information—hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“The fact remains that the human being in early childhood learns to consider one or the other aspect of bodily function as evil, shameful, or unsafe. There is not a culture which does not use a combination of these devils to develop, by way of counterpoint, its own style of faith, pride, certainty, and initiative.”
—Erik H. Erikson (1904–1994)