title: The genome of Yoka poxvirus.
abstract: Yoka poxvirus was isolated almost four decades ago from a mosquito pool in the Central African Republic. Its classification as a poxvirus is based solely upon the morphology of virions visualized by electron microscopy. Here we describe sequencing of the Yoka poxvirus genome using a combination of Roche/454 and Illumina next-generation sequencing technologies. A single consensus contig of ∼175 kb in length that encodes 186 predicted genes was generated. Multiple methods were used to show that Yoka poxvirus is most closely related to viruses in the Orthopoxvirus genus, but it is clearly distinct from previously described poxviruses. Collectively, the phylogenetic and genomic sequence analyses suggest that Yoka poxvirus is the prototype member of a new genus in the family Poxviridae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Guoyan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Droit
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Tesh
authors.forename: Vsevolod L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Nicole S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Upton
authors.forename: Herbert W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Virgin
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002488:Central African Republic; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018155:Orthopoxvirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral