ANP32 proteins, which act as influenza polymerase cofactors, vary between birds and mammals. In mammals, ANP32A and ANP32B have been reported to serve essential but redundant roles to support influenza polymerase activity. The well-known mammalian adaptation PB2-E627K enables influenza polymerase to use mammalian ANP32 proteins. However, some mammalian-adapted influenza viruses do not harbor this substitution. Here, we show that alternative PB2 adaptations, Q591R and D701N, also allow influenza polymerase to use mammalian ANP32 proteins, whereas other PB2 mutations, G158E, T271A, and D740N, increase polymerase activity in the presence of avian ANP32 proteins as well. Furthermore, PB2-E627K strongly favors use of mammalian ANP32B proteins, whereas D701N shows no such bias. Accordingly, PB2-E627K adaptation emerges in species with strong pro-viral ANP32B proteins, such as humans and mice, while D701N is more commonly seen in isolates from swine, dogs, and horses, where ANP32A proteins are the preferred cofactor. Using an experimental evolution approach, we show that the passage of viruses containing avian polymerases in human cells drove acquisition of PB2-E627K, but not in the absence of ANP32B. Finally, we show that the strong pro-viral support of ANP32B for PB2-E627K maps to the low-complexity acidic region (LCAR) tail of ANP32B. IMPORTANCE Influenza viruses naturally reside in wild aquatic birds. However, the high mutation rate of influenza viruses allows them to rapidly and frequently adapt to new hosts, including mammals. Viruses that succeed in these zoonotic jumps pose a pandemic threat whereby the virus adapts sufficiently to efficiently transmit human-to-human. The influenza virus polymerase is central to viral replication and restriction of polymerase activity is a major barrier to species jumps. ANP32 proteins are essential for influenza polymerase activity. In this study, we describe how avian influenza viruses can adapt in several different ways to use mammalian ANP32 proteins. We further show that differences between mammalian ANP32 proteins can select different adaptive changes and are responsible for some of the typical mutations that arise in mammalian-adapted influenza polymerases. These different adaptive mutations may determine the relative zoonotic potential of influenza viruses and thus help assess their pandemic risk.
Keywords: ANP32; ANP32A; ANP32B; avian influenza; canine influenza; equine influenza; host factors; influenza; pandemic; pandemic influenza; swine influenza; zoonotic.