{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T21:33:09Z","timestamp":1784755989538,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,7]],"date-time":"2020-02-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1581033600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FI1781\/2-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FI1781\/2-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"European Foundation Initiative for African Research into Neglected Tropical diseases (EFINTD)","award":["1\/85\/022 & 89 540"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1\/85\/022 & 89 540"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic illness responsible for thousands of human deaths in West Africa yearly. Rodents are known as natural reservoirs of the causative Lassa mammarenavirus (LASV) while humans are regarded as incidental, spill-over hosts. Analysis of genetic sequences continues to add to our understanding of the evolutionary history, emergence patterns, and the epidemiology of LASV. Hitherto, the source of data in such investigations has mainly comprised human clinical samples. Presently, a rise in the quantity of virus strains accessed through ecological studies over the last 15 years now allows us to explore how LASV sequences obtained from rodents might affect phylogenetic patterns. In this study, we phylogenetically compared LASV sequences obtained from both rodents and humans across West Africa, including those from two localities highly endemic for the disease: Ekpoma in Nigeria and Kenema in Sierra Leone. We performed a time-calibrated phylogeny, using a Bayesian analysis on 198 taxa, including 102 sequences from rodents and 96 from humans. Contrary to expectation, our results show that LASV strains detected in humans within these localities, even those sampled recently, are consistently ancient to those circulating in rodents in the same area. We discuss the possibilities connected to this preliminary outcome. We also propose modalities to guide more comprehensive comparisons of human and rodent data in LASV molecular epidemiological studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biology9020026","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,7]],"date-time":"2020-02-07T11:50:28Z","timestamp":1581076228000},"page":"26","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Determining Ancestry between Rodent- and Human-Derived Virus Sequences in Endemic Foci: Towards a More Integral Molecular Epidemiology of Lassa Fever within West Africa"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Ayodeji","family":"Olayemi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, HO220005, Nigeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0701-8089","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adetunji Samuel","family":"Adesina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife HO220005, Nigeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Strecker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Virology, Philipps University, 35043 Marburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"N\u2019Faly","family":"Magassouba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire des Fi\u00e8vres H\u00e9morragiques Virales, Conakry, Guinea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisabeth","family":"Fichet-Calvet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Virology, Bernhard-Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine, 20359 Hamburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"75","article-title":"Lassa fever","volume":"262","author":"McCormick","year":"2002","journal-title":"Curr. 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