Geneticists Trace The Evolution Of St. Louis Encephalitis

Sunday, May 18, 2008 - 03:35 in Biology & Nature

Researchers have sequenced the entire genetic code of 23 strains of Flavivirus, the virus that causes St. Louis encephalitis, to understand its evolutionary history. This study, published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, found that a single mutation made the virus pathogenic to humans and that the North and South American strains divided about 116 years ago.

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