The genomes of three North American orthopoxviruses.
The complete genomes of a skunkpox, volepox, and raccoonpox virus were sequenced and annotated. Phylogenetic analysis of these genomes indicates that although these viruses are all orthopoxviruses, they form a distinct clade to the other known species. This supports the ancient divergence of the North American orthopoxviruses from other members of the orthopoxviruses. Only two open reading frames appear to be unique to this group of viruses, but a relatively small number of insertions/deletions contribute to the varied gene content of this clade. The availability of these genomes will help determine whether skunkpox and volepox viruses share the characteristics that make raccoonpox a useful vaccine vector.
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Chad
C
Smithson
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Nick
N
Tang
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Scott
S
Sammons
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Mike
M
Frace
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Dhwani
D
Batra
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Yu
Y
Li
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Ginny L
GL
Emerson
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
Darin S
DS
Carroll
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. cupton@uvic.ca.
Chris
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9019-8967
C
Upton
D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D009154:Mutation; D009656:North America / Q000453:epidemiology; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D018155:Orthopoxvirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011213:Poxviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
Evolution; Orthopox; Phylogeny; Poxvirus; Raccoonpox; Skunkpox; Volepox