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Updated: Aug 28, 2025

Vaccinia Virus Infection & Temporal Analysis of Virus Gene Expression: Part 1
Published on: April 8, 2009
Monkeypox virus genome sequence from an imported human case in Colombia
Katherine Laiton-Donato1, Diego A Álvarez-Díaz2, Carlos Franco-Muñoz2
1Grupo Genómica de Microorganismos Emergentes, Dirección de Investigación en Salud Pública, Instituto Nacional de Salud, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. klaiton@ins.gov.co.
Introduction:
Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus with a genome of approximately 197.209 bp. The current classification divides MPXV into three clades: Clade I (Central African or Congo Basin clade) and clades IIa and IIb (West African clades).
Objective:
To report the complete genome and phylogenetic analysis of a human monkeypox case detected in Colombia.
Materials And Methods:
Exudate from vesicular lesions was obtained from a male patient with recent travel history to Spain. A direct genomic approach was implemented in which total DNA from the sample was purified through a column-based method, followed by sequencing on the Nanopore GridION. Reads were aligned against the MPXV reference genome using minimap2 v.2.24 and phylogenetic inference was performed using maximum likelihood estimation.
Results:
A total of 11.951 reads mapped directly to a reference genome with 96.8% of coverage (190.898 bp).
Conclusion:
Phylogenetic analysis of the MPXV circulating in Colombia demonstrated its close relationship to clade IIb responsible for the multi-country outbreak in 2022.

