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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Vaccinia Virus Infection & Temporal Analysis of Virus Gene Expression: Part 3
Published on: April 13, 2009
Genome-based phylogeny of poxvirus
Ke Xing1, Riqiang Deng, Jinwen Wang
1State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, School of Life Science, Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou, PR China.
Abstract:
A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Poxviridae was performed in this study. Phylogenetic trees were reconstructed from whole genomic information including gene order, gene content, and all conserved gene protein sequences. Gene content and gene order were the methods used for the first time in cladogram reconstruction of poxvirus. The results of the different methods finally shared mainly consistent tree topologies, which were supported by the classic taxonomy of Poxviridae. According to these topologies, the Entomopoxvirinae and Chordopoxvirinae subfamilies are divergent from each other. Subfamily Chordopoxvirinae could be divided into four main groupings, which could be further divided into subgroups. Parapoxvirus and Molluscipoxvirus have been considered distinct from other Chordopoxvirus. Results from our study consistently supported this suggestion. In our results, Parapoxvirus and Molluscipoxvirus were the most closely related genera and formed a group. This group could be the one that branched after the divergence of Avipoxviruses. Additionally, rabbitpox virus and vaccinia virus steadily formed clusters with high bootstrap support in all the cladograms.
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