Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33012235›Full record

ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2020

Variola virus genome sequenced from an eighteenth-century museum specimen supports the recent origin of smallpox.

Giada Ferrari, Judith Neukamm, Helle T Baalsrud, Abagail M Breidenstein, Mark Ravinet, Carina Phillips, Frank Rühli, Abigail Bouwman, Verena J Schuenemann

Open access · hybridAbstract readHistorical Article
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
3.2field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. An Adagio for Viruses, Played Out on Ancient DNA.Genome biology and evolution · 2023
    Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Giada FerrariCentre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066 Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
Judith NeukammInstitute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Helle T BaalsrudCentre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066 Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
Abagail M BreidensteinInstitute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Mark RavinetCentre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066 Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
Carina PhillipsThe Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE, UK.
Frank RühliInstitute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Abigail BouwmanInstitute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Verena J SchuenemannInstitute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
University of Zurich · CHUniversity of Oslo · NOThe Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn · GBUniversity of Nottingham · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Smallpox, caused by the variola virus (VARV), was a highly virulent disease with high mortality rates causing a major threat for global human health until its successful eradication in 1980. Despite previously published historic and modern VARV genomes, its past dissemination and diversity remain debated. To understand the evolutionary history of VARV with respect to historic and modern VARV genetic variation in Europe, we sequenced a VARV genome from a well-described eighteenth-century case from England (specimen P328). In our phylogenetic analysis, the new genome falls between the modern strains and another historic strain from Lithuania, supporting previous claims of larger diversity in early modern Europe compared to the twentieth century. Our analyses also resolve a previous controversy regarding the common ancestor between modern and historic strains by confirming a later date around the seventeenth century. Overall, our results point to the benefit of historic genomes for better resolution of past VARV diversity and highlight the value of such historic genomes from around the world to further understand the evolutionary history of smallpox as well as related diseases. This article is part of the theme issue 'Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules'.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularGenome, ViralAnimalsEnglandHistory, 18th CenturyHumansInfantMuseumsPhylogenySmallpoxVariola virusancient DNAmetagenomicsmuseum specimenssmallpoxvirus evolution

Identifiers

PMID33012235
PMCPMC7702794
OpenAlexW3091701739

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.