Poxviruses are often thought to evolve relatively slowly because they are double-stranded
DNA pathogens with proofreading polymerases. However, poxviruses have highly …

To investigate the evolutionary origins of proteins encoded by the Poxviridae family of
viruses, we examined all poxvirus protein coding genes using a method of characterizing …

Poxviruses as a group can infect a large number of animals. However, at the level of
individual viruses, even closely related poxviruses display highly diverse host ranges and …

Previous studies of genome evolution usually have involved one or two genomes and have
thus been limited in their ability to detect the direction and rate of evolutionary change. Here …

The poxviruses (family Poxviridae) are a family of double-stranded viruses including several
species that infect humans and their domestic animals, most notably Variola virus (VARV) …

Poxviruses are truly remarkable pathogens. The most notorious, variola virus (VarV), is
thought to have emerged in Africa around 3,000–4,000 years ago. From there, VarV swept …

Genome uncoating is essential for replication of most viruses. For poxviruses, the process is
divided into two stages: removal of the envelope, allowing early gene expression, and …

Poxviruses are highly successful pathogens, known to infect a variety of hosts. The family
Poxviridae includes Variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, which has been …

Poxviruses replicate in cytoplasmic structures called factories and each factory begins as a
single infecting particle. Sixty-years ago Cairns predicted that this might have effects on …

The survival of viruses depends on their ability to resist host defenses and, of all animal virus
families, the poxviruses have the most antidefense genes. Orthopoxviruses (ORPV), a genus …