I have read the scientific paper, "Substitutions Near the Receptor Binding Site Determine Major Antigenic Change During Influenza Virus Evolution" by Björn F. Koel et al (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6161/976).
In the paper, important positions to influenza antigenic drift include positions 109-301, with special emphasis on sites 133, 144, 145, 155, 156, 158, 159, 189, 193.
However, nowhere in the paper does it specifically mention which positions are part of the receptor binding site and which are close to it.
The range (109-301) is a bit broad since it includes amino acid positions that are unimportant to antigenicity. I would like a list of all very important AA substitutions (that are near the receptor binding site) to involve in a bioinformatics project. The special emphasis amino acid sites list does not include all amino acids that are near the binding site.
To convey a sense of the problem, if position 155 is important, does that mean position 156 is also important?
I don't know if position 156 is considered "near" the receptor binding site.
Any help is appreciated.