Abstract
Recent Common Ancestry of Ebola Zaire Virus Found in a Bat Reservoir
Highlights
I dentifying a natural reservoir for Ebola virus has eluded researchers for decades [1,2]
This relationship is apparent for viruses found in 1976–1995 compared with those found in 2001–2003, and within the latter group (Figure 1). This means that all genetic variation seen far in Ebola virus Zaire (EBOVZ), including virus amplified from fruit bats, appears to be the product of mutations that have accumulated within the last 30 years
PLoS Pathogens | www.plospathogens.org identical to that sampled from infected humans during outbreaks in late 2001 and early 2002 (Entsiami and Mendemba, Figure 1), suggesting that this ancestor could not be much older. This is in agreement with the previous analysis of the GP gene, which indicated that all viruses sampled from outbreaks since 2001 had a most recent common ancestor in 1999 [4]
Summary
I dentifying a natural reservoir for Ebola virus has eluded researchers for decades [1,2]. The temporal structure visible in the L gene genealogy implies that all viruses sampled from both humans and bats between 2001 and 2003 can be traced back to a very recent common ancestor, by which we mean a recent coalescence of genetic lineages, not an ancestral alternative reservoir species.
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