Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Combining Analysis of DNA in a Crude Virion Extraction with the Analysis of RNA from Infected Leaves to Discover New Virus Genomes
Published on: July 27, 2018
Re-Assembly and Analysis of an Ancient Variola Virus Genome
Chad Smithson1, Jacob Imbery2, Chris Upton3
1Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P6, Canada. chadsmiths83@gmail.com.
Abstract:
We report a major improvement to the assembly of published short read sequencing data from an ancient variola virus (VARV) genome by the removal of contig-capping sequencing tags and manual searches for gap-spanning reads. The new assembly, together with camelpox and taterapox genomes, permitted new dates to be calculated for the last common ancestor of all VARV genomes. The analysis of recently sequenced VARV-like cowpox virus genomes showed that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and amino acid changes in the vaccinia virus (VACV)-Cop-O1L ortholog, predicted to be associated with VARV host specificity and virulence, were introduced into the lineage before the divergence of these viruses. A comparison of the ancient and modern VARV genome sequences also revealed a measurable drift towards adenine + thymine (A + T) richness.
Related Concept Videos
Viral Recombination
Size and Structure of Viral Genomes
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Retroviruses

