Question

What is the difference between antigenic shift and antigenic drift?

Answer 1

antigenic shift-genetic change that enables a virus or a pathogen strain to jump from one animal species to another, usually happen by mixing of genome from more than one strain. while antigenic drift happen by mutation, the process is inside a single strain which help it to escape from immune response. changing antigenic protein sequences (like receptor protein) is an example for antigenic drift. origin of a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two or more original strains is an example of antigenic shift.