{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:14:33Z","timestamp":1760242473695,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,8]],"date-time":"2017-09-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1504828800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002790","name":"Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2015-04953"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2015-04953"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002790","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v9090253","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,8]],"date-time":"2017-09-08T11:34:52Z","timestamp":1504870492000},"page":"253","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Re-Assembly and Analysis of an Ancient Variola Virus Genome"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3119-2503","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chad","family":"Smithson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P6, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jacob","family":"Imbery","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P6, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9019-8967","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chris","family":"Upton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P6, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3407","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2016.10.061","article-title":"17th century variola virus reveals the recent history of smallpox","volume":"26","author":"Duggan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Curr. 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