The genetic evolution of Zika virus
Saturday, April 16, 2016 - 03:09
in Biology & Nature
This is a phylogenetic tree constructed from nucleotide data from 41 viral complete ORF sequences of ZIKV strains An analysis comparing the individual differences between over 40 strains of Zika virus (30 isolated from humans, 10 from mosquitoes, and 1 from monkeys) has identified significant changes in both amino acid and nucleotide sequences during the past half-century. The data, published April 15 in Cell Host & Microbe, support a strong divergence between the Asian and African lineages as well as human and mosquito isolates of the virus, and will likely be helpful as researchers flush out how a relatively unknown pathogen led to the current outbreak.