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The genus ''Ebolavirus'' (- or ; - or ) is a virological taxon included in the family '' Filoviridae'' (filament-shaped viruses), order ''
Mononegavirales ''Mononegavirales'' is an order of negative-strand RNA viruses which have nonsegmented genomes. Some common members of the order are Ebola virus, human respiratory syncytial virus, measles virus, mumps virus, Nipah virus, and rabies virus. A ...
''. The members of this genus are called ebolaviruses, and encode their genome in the form of single-stranded negative-sense RNA. The six known
virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
are named for the region where each was originally identified: ''
Bundibugyo ebolavirus The species ''Bundibugyo ebolavirus'' ( ) is the taxonomic home of one virus, Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), that forms filamentous virions and is closely related to the infamous Ebola virus (EBOV). The virus causes severe disease in humans in the f ...
'', ''
Reston ebolavirus Reston virus (RESTV) is one of six known viruses within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Reston virus causes Ebola virus disease in non-human primates; unlike the other five ebolaviruses, it is not known to cause disease in humans, but has caused asym ...
'', ''
Sudan ebolavirus The species ''Sudan ebolavirus'' is a virological taxon included in the genus '' Ebolavirus'', family '' Filoviridae'', order '' Mononegavirales''. The species has a single virus member, Sudan virus (SUDV). The members of the species are cal ...
'', '' Taï Forest ebolavirus'' (originally ''Côte d'Ivoire ebolavirus''), ''
Zaire ebolavirus ''Zaire ebolavirus'', more commonly known as Ebola virus (; EBOV), is one of six known species within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Four of the six known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and o ...
'', and '' Bombali ebolavirus''. The last is the most recent species to be named and was isolated from
Angolan free-tailed bat The Angolan free-tailed bat (''Mops condylurus'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coa ...
s in
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
. Each species of the genus ''Ebolavirus'' has one member virus, and four of these cause
Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...
(EVD) in humans, a type of
hemorrhagic fever Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a diverse group of animal and human illnesses in which fever and hemorrhage are caused by a viral infection. VHFs may be caused by five distinct families of RNA viruses: the families '' Filoviridae'', '' ...
having a very high
case fatality rate In epidemiology, case fatality rate (CFR) – or sometimes more accurately case-fatality risk – is the proportion of people diagnosed with a certain disease, who end up dying of it. Unlike a disease's mortality rate, the CFR does not take int ...
. The Reston virus has caused EVD in other primates. ''Zaire ebolavirus'' has the highest mortality rate of the ebolaviruses and is responsible for the largest number of outbreaks of the six known species of the genus, including the 1976 Zaire outbreak and the outbreak with the most deaths (2014). Ebolaviruses were first described after outbreaks of EVD in southern
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
in June 1976 and in
Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
in August 1976.Kalra S., Kelkar D., Galwankar S. C., Papadimos T. J., Stawicki S. P., Arquilla B., Hoey B. A., Sharpe R. P., Sabol D., Jahre J. A. The emergence of Ebola as a global health security threat: From 'lessons learned' to coordinated multilateral containment efforts. J Global Infect Dis erial online2014 ited 2015 Mar 1 6:164–177. The name ''Ebolavirus'' is derived from the
Ebola River The Ebola River ( or ), also commonly known by its indigenous name Legbala, is the headstream of the Mongala River, a tributary of the Congo River, in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is roughly in length. The name ''Ebola'' is a ...
in Zaire (now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
), near the location of the 1976 outbreak, and the taxonomic
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
''-virus'' (denoting a viral genus). This genus was introduced in 1998 as the "Ebola-like viruses". In 2002, the name was changed to ''Ebolavirus'' and in 2010, the genus was emended. Ebolaviruses are closely related to marburgviruses.


Ebolavirus structure

Ebolavirus is a filamentous, enveloped virus within the order ''Mononegavirales'' which also contains rabies and measles. This order is characterized by non-segmented, single-stranded negative-sense RNA (-ssRNA) genomes that are surrounded by a helical nucleocapsid. Filoviruses encode seven different proteins that include: NP (nucleoprotein), VP35 (part of the polymerase complex), VP40 (matrix protein), GP (glycoprotein spike), VP30 (transcription activator), VP42 (second matrix protein), and L (RdRp). Of these proteins, GP and NP proteins are crucial for viral entry and replication. GP is the protein responsible for pathogenic differences among ebolaviruses. GP encodes two glycoproteins, one of which is sGP (soluble glycoprotein) which has a role in Ebola pathogenesis. Research has suggested that sGP is able to subvert the host immune response increasing the EBOV pathogenesis. NP contains both the filoviral genome and the antigenome. NP oligomerization is responsible for the NC (helical nucleocapsid) formation which allows the -ssRNA genome to be protected against host cell degradation by endonucleases and host immune response. NP is also shown to recruit host cell proteins to facilitate virus transcription and replication within the cytoplasm.


Hosts

Researchers have found evidence of Ebola infection in three species of fruit bat. The bats show no symptoms of the disease, indicating that they may be the main natural reservoirs of the Ebolavirus. It is possible that there are other reservoirs and vectors. Understanding where the virus incubates between outbreaks and how it is transmitted between species will help protect humans and other primates from the virus. The researchers found that bats of three species – Franquet's epauletted fruit bat ('' Epomops franqueti''), the hammer-headed bat (''
Hypsignathus monstrosus The hammer-headed bat ('), also known as hammer-headed fruit bat and big-lipped bat, is a megabat widely distributed in West and Central Africa. It is the only member of the genus ''Hypsignathus'', which is part of the tribe Epomophorini along w ...
'') and the little collared fruit bat (''
Myonycteris torquata ''Myonycteris'' (collared bat) is a genus of bat in the family Pteropodidae. It contains the following species:Simmons, 2005, p. 328 Genus ''Myonycteris'' * São Tomé collared fruit bat, ''Myonycteris brachycephala'' * East African little ...
'') – had either genetic material from the Ebola virus, known as RNA sequences, or evidence of an immune response to the disease. The bats showed no symptoms themselves. The Bombali ebolavirus (BOMV) was isolated from the little free-tailed bat ('' Chaerephon pumilus'') and the Angolan free-tailed bat (''
Mops condylurus The Angolan free-tailed bat (''Mops condylurus'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, ...
'') in
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
.


Entry pathway

The entry pathway that the virus uses is a key step in its cycle. Several pathways have been suggested for Ebolavirus such as phagocytosis and clathrin and caveolin mediated endocytosis. However, Nanbo et al. (2010) and Saeed et al. (2010) independently proved that neither of these pathways is actually used. They discovered that Ebolavirus uses
macropinocytosis In cellular biology, pinocytosis, otherwise known as fluid endocytosis and bulk-phase pinocytosis, is a mode of endocytosis in which small molecules dissolved in extracellular fluid are brought into the cell through an invagination of the cell me ...
to enter the host cells. Induction of macropinocytosis leads to the formation of macropinocytosis-specific endosomes (macropinosomes), which are large enough to accommodate Ebola virions. This discovery was proven by the fact that Ebolavirus co-localizes with sorting nexin 5 (SNX5), which consists of a large family of peripheral membrane proteins that associate with newly formed macropinosomes. Also, blocking the macropinocytosis pathway has been proven to stop Ebolavirus from entering the cells. Four different macropinocytosis specific inhibitors were tested: cytochalasin D (depolymerizing agent), wortmannin (Wort), LY-294002 (both are inhibitors of PI3K) and EIPA (5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl) amiloride), an inhibitor of the Na+/H+ exchanger specific for pinocytosis. Then, internalized EBOV particles are transported to late endosomes and, there, co-localization with GTPase Rab7 (marker of late endosomes) is observed. Mutation of both Rab5 and Rab7 GTPases additionally inhibits viral entry. After trafficking to late endosomes, Ebola virus binds the intracellular receptor Neimann-Pick C1 (NPC1) and the viral membrane fuses with the endosomal membrane, allowing the virus to release its genome into the cytoplasm.


Treatment

The main reason that there are not many available treatments is that Ebola is such a severe virus, with a 90% fatality rate. It can only be explored in a BSL-4 laboratory which is very selective. In order for it to be studied more widely, BSL-2 laboratories have been able to use systems that are substitutes for the actual infectious virus. Scientists have used pseudo types that have the same glycoprotein on the surface that is used for entry into the host cell. They also use noninfectious Ebola-like particles as a replacement system to study. The search for a vaccine for Ebola began immediately after it was first discovered in 1976. There are currently only two FDA approved drugs. In October 2020 Immazab was officially approved and in December 2020, Ebanga was also officially approved. The difference between the two treatments is that Immazeb uses three monoclonal antibodies whereas Ebanga only has one monoclonal antibody. Both of these treatments are designed to attack the glycoprotein in order to prevent the virus from entering a new host cell and replicating. Besides these two drugs, there is more general treatment care such as managing symptoms that are caused by Ebola such as vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and any pain.


Taxonomy notes

According to the rules for taxon naming established by the
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) authorizes and organizes the taxonomic classification of and the nomenclatures for viruses. The ICTV has developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses, and thus has the means to ap ...
(ICTV), the name of the genus ''Ebolavirus'' is always to be capitalized,
italicized In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...
, never abbreviated, and to be preceded by the word "genus". The names of its members (ebolaviruses) are to be written in lower case, are not italicized, and used without
articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: ...
.


Genus inclusion criteria

A virus of the family '' Filoviridae'' is a member of the genus ''Ebolavirus'' if * its genome has several gene overlaps * its fourth gene (''GP'') encodes four proteins (sGP, ssGP, Δ-peptide, and GP1,2) using cotranscriptional editing to express ssGP and GP1,2 and
proteolytic Proteolysis is the breakdown of proteins into smaller polypeptides or amino acids. Uncatalysed, the hydrolysis of peptide bonds is extremely slow, taking hundreds of years. Proteolysis is typically catalysed by cellular enzymes called prote ...
cleavage to express sGP and Δ-peptide * peak infectivity of its virions is associated with particles ≈805 nm in length * its genome differs from that of
Marburg virus Marburg virus (MARV) is a hemorrhagic fever virus of the '' Filoviridae'' family of viruses and a member of the species '' Marburg marburgvirus'', genus '' Marburgvirus''. It causes Marburg virus disease in primates, a form of viral hemorrhagi ...
by ≥50% and from that of
Zaire ebolavirus ''Zaire ebolavirus'', more commonly known as Ebola virus (; EBOV), is one of six known species within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Four of the six known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and o ...
by <50% at the nucleotide level * its virions show almost no antigenic cross reactivity with marburg virions


Classification

The genera ''Ebolavirus'' and '' Marburgvirus'' were originally classified as the species of the now-obsolete genus ''Filovirus''. In March 1998, the Vertebrate Virus Subcommittee proposed in the
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) authorizes and organizes the taxonomic classification of and the nomenclatures for viruses. The ICTV has developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses, and thus has the means to ap ...
(ICTV) to change the genus ''Filovirus'' to the family ''Filoviridae'' with two specific genera: ''Ebola-like viruses'' and ''Marburg-like viruses''. This proposal was implemented in Washington, D.C., as of April 2001 and in Paris as of July 2002. In 2000, another proposal was made in Washington, D.C., to change the "-like viruses" to "-virus" resulting in today's ''Ebolavirus'' and ''Marburgvirus''. Five characterised species of the genus ''Ebolavirus'' are: ;
Zaire ebolavirus ''Zaire ebolavirus'', more commonly known as Ebola virus (; EBOV), is one of six known species within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Four of the six known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and o ...
(ZEBOV) : Also known simply as the ''Zaire virus'', ZEBOV has the highest case-fatality rate, up to 90% in some epidemics, with an average case fatality rate of approximately 83% over 27 years. There have been more outbreaks of ''Zaire ebolavirus'' than of any other species. The first outbreak took place on 26 August 1976 in Yambuku. Mabalo Lokela, a 44‑year-old schoolteacher, became the first recorded case. The symptoms resembled
malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...
, and subsequent patients received
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
. Transmission has been attributed to reuse of unsterilized needles and close personal contact. The virus is responsible for the
2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia a ...
, the deadliest ''Filovirus'' outbreak to date. ; Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV) : The
Sudan ebolavirus The species ''Sudan ebolavirus'' is a virological taxon included in the genus '' Ebolavirus'', family '' Filoviridae'', order '' Mononegavirales''. The species has a single virus member, Sudan virus (SUDV). The members of the species are cal ...
, like ZEBOV, emerged in 1976; it was at first assumed to be identical with ZEBOV. SUDV is believed to have broken out first amongst cotton factory workers in
Nzara Nzara is a town in Western Equatoria State. It lies to the northwest of Yambio by road, and is 25 km (15m) from the border with the DR Congo. Nzara was industrial center of the Azande Scheme also known as, Equatoria Project Scheme during ...
,
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
(now in South Sudan), in June 1976, with the first case reported as a worker exposed to a potential natural reservoir. Scientists tested local animals and insects in response to this; however, none tested positive for the virus. The carrier is still unknown. The lack of barrier nursing (or "bedside isolation") facilitated the spread of the disease. The average fatality rates for SUDV were 53% in 1976, 65% in 1979, and 53% in 2000. ; Reston ebolavirus (RESTV) : This virus was discovered during an outbreak of
simian hemorrhagic fever virus ''Deltaarterivirus hemfev'', formerly ''Simian hemorrhagic fever virus'' or ''simian haemorrhagic fever virus'' (SHFV), is a highly pathogenic virus in monkeys. It is a positive-stranded RNA virus classified in the family ''Arteriviridae''. It ...
(SHFV) in
crab-eating macaques The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecinae, cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the cr ...
from
Hazleton Laboratories Labcorp Drug Development is a contract research organization (CRO) headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, providing nonclinical, preclinical, clinical and commercialization services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Formerly ...
(now Covance) in 1989. Since the initial outbreak in
Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City move ...
, it has since been found in nonhuman primates in Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. In each case, the affected animals had been imported from a facility in the Philippines, where the virus has also infected pigs. Despite its status as a Level‑4 organism and its apparent
pathogen In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a g ...
icity in monkeys, RESTV did not cause disease in exposed human laboratory workers. ; Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV): Formerly known as "Côte d'Ivoire ebolavirus", it was first discovered among
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative t ...
s from the Tai Forest in
Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, in 1994. Necropsies showed blood within the heart to be brown; no obvious marks were seen on the organs; and one necropsy displayed lungs filled with blood. Studies of tissues taken from the chimpanzees showed results similar to human cases during the 1976 Ebola outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan. As more dead chimpanzees were discovered, many tested positive for Ebola using molecular techniques. The source of the virus was believed to be the meat of infected western red colobus monkeys ('' Procolobus badius'') upon which the chimpanzees preyed. One of the scientists performing the necropsies on the infected chimpanzees contracted Ebola. She developed symptoms similar to those of
dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...
approximately a week after the necropsy, and was transported to Switzerland for treatment. She was discharged from hospital after two weeks and had fully recovered six weeks after the infection. ; Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV): On November 24, 2007, the Uganda Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebola in the
Bundibugyo District Bundibugyo District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The town of Bundibugyo is where both the district headquarters and the Bwamba Kingdom seat ( Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba) are l ...
. After confirmation of samples tested by the United States National Reference Laboratories and the
CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...
, the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...
confirmed the presence of the new species. On 20 February 2008, the Uganda Ministry officially announced the end of the epidemic in Bundibugyo, with the last infected person discharged on 8 January 2008. An epidemiological study conducted by WHO and Uganda Ministry of Health scientists determined there were 116 confirmed and probable cases of the new Ebola species, and that the outbreak had a mortality rate of 34% (39 deaths).


Evolution

Rates of genetic change are 8*10−4 per site per year and are thus one fourth as fast as
influenza A '' A virus'' (''IAV'') causes influenza in birds and some mammals, and is the only species of the genus ''Alphainfluenzavirus'' of the virus family ''Orthomyxoviridae''. Strains of all subtypes of influenza A virus have been isolated from wild ...
in humans. Extrapolating backwards, Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus probably diverged several thousand years ago. A study done in 1995 and 1996 found that the genes of Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus differed by about 55% at the nucleotide level, and at least 67% at the amino acid level. The same study found that the strains of Ebolavirus differed by about 37–41% across the nucleotide level and 34–43% across the amino acid level. The EBOV strain was found to have an almost 2% change in the nucleotide level from the original 1976 strain from the Yambuki outbreak and the strain from the 1995 Kikwit outbreak. However, paleoviruses of
filovirus ''Filoviridae'' () is a family of single-stranded negative-sense RNA viruses in the order '' Mononegavirales''. Two members of the family that are commonly known are Ebola virus and Marburg virus. Both viruses, and some of their lesser known ...
es found in mammals indicate that the family itself is at least tens of millions of years old.


Genus organization and common names

The genus ''Ebolavirus'' has been organized into six species; however, the nomenclature has proven somewhat controversial, with many authors continuing to use common names rather than species names when referring to these viruses. In particular, the generic term "Ebola virus" is widely used to refer specifically to members of the species ''Zaire ebolavirus''. Consequently, in 2010, a group of researchers recommended that the name "Ebola virus" be adopted for a subclassification within the species ''Zaire ebolavirus'' and that similar common names be formally adopted for other ''Ebolavirus'' species. In 2011, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) rejected a proposal (2010.010bV) to formally recognize these names, as they do not designate names for subtypes, variants, strains, or other subspecies level groupings. As such, the widely used common names are not formally recognized as part of the taxonomic nomenclature. In particular, "Ebola virus" does not have an official meaning recognized by ICTV, and rather they continue to use and recommend only the species designation ''Zaire ebolavirus''. The threshold for putting isolates into different species is usually a difference of more than 30% at the nucleotide level, compared to the
type strain The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC) governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.P. H. A. Sneath, 2003. A short hist ...
. If a virus is in a given species but differs from the type strain by more than 10% at the nucleotide level, it is proposed that it be named as a new virus. , none of the ''Ebolavirus'' species contain members divergent enough to receive more than one "virus" designation.


Research

A 2013 study isolated antibodies from
fruit bats In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
in Bangladesh, against Ebola Zaire and
Reston virus Reston virus (RESTV) is one of six known viruses within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Reston virus causes Ebola virus disease in non-human primates; unlike the other five ebolaviruses, it is not known to cause disease in humans, but has caused asymp ...
es, thus identifying potential virus hosts and signs of the filoviruses in Asia. A recent alignment-free analysis of Ebola virus genomes from the current outbreak reveals the presence of three short DNA sequences that appear nowhere in the human genome, suggesting that the identification of specific species sequences may prove to be useful for the development of both diagnosis and therapeutics.


Notes


References


External links


ICTV Report: ''Filoviridae''


– Virological repository from the
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland. The institute was established on 30 March 1998 and its mission is to provide core bioinfor ...

Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR): Ebolavirus


{{Authority control Animal viral diseases Biological weapons Tropical diseases Virus-related cutaneous conditions Zoonoses Filoviridae Chiroptera-borne diseases Virus genera