Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Mutation rate and genotype variation of Ebola virus from Mali case sequences

2015; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 348; Issue: 6230 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.aaa5646

1095-9203

Thomas Hoenen, David Safronetz, Allison Groseth, Kurt Wollenberg, Ousmane Koita, Bassirou Diarra, Ibrahima Socé Fall, Fadima Cheick Haidara, Fatoumata Diallo, M. Sanogo, Yéya dit Sadio Sarro, A. Koné, Antieme Combo Georges Togo, Aïssata Traore, Mamoudou Kodio, Annick Dosseh, Kyle Rosenke, Emmie de Wit, Friederike Feldmann, Hideki Ebihara, Vincent J. Munster, Kathryn C. Zoon, Heinz Feldmann, Samba O. Sow,

Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology

The occurrence of Ebola virus (EBOV) in West Africa during 2013-2015 is unprecedented. Early reports suggested that in this outbreak EBOV is mutating twice as fast as previously observed, which indicates the potential for changes in transmissibility and virulence and could render current molecular diagnostics and countermeasures ineffective. We have determined additional full-length sequences from two clusters of imported EBOV infections into Mali, and we show that the nucleotide substitution rate (9.6 × 10(-4) substitutions per site per year) is consistent with rates observed in Central African outbreaks. In addition, overall variation among all genotypes observed remains low. Thus, our data indicate that EBOV is not undergoing rapid evolution in humans during the current outbreak. This finding has important implications for outbreak response and public health decisions and should alleviate several previously raised concerns.