Diversity and epidemiology of Mokola virus
Mokola virus (MOKV) appears to be exclusive to Africa. Although the first isolates were from Nigeria and other Congo basin countries, all reports over the past 20 years have been from southern Africa. Previous phylogenetic studies analyzed few isolates or used partial gene sequence for analysis since limited sequence information is available for MOKV and the isolates were distributed among various laboratories. The complete nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, matrix and glycoprotein genes of 18 MOKV isolates in various laboratories were sequenced either using partial or full genome sequencing using pyrosequencing and a phylogenetic analysis was undertaken. The results indicated that MOKV isolates from the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic and Nigeria clustered according to geographic origin irrespective of the genes used for phylogenetic analysis, similar to that observed with Lagos bat virus. A Bayesian Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo- (MCMC) analysis revealed the age of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of MOKV to be between 279 and 2034 years depending on the genes used. Generally, all MOKV isolates showed a similar pattern at the amino acid sites considered influential for viral properties. ; The South African National Research Foundation (NRF) and the South African Polioemylitis Research Foundation (PRF) as well as grants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (SE0423 and SE0427), the Department of Science and Technology (04/17/c215), BMBF (01KI1016A), the Research and Policy for Infectious Disease Dynamics (RAPIDD) programme of the Science and Technology Directorate, US Department of Homeland Security, at the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, and by the EU FP7–funded Research Infrastructure Grant ''European Virus Archive'' (no. 19 228292). ; http://www.plosntds.org ; am2014