Population Genetics and Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) of the Monkeypox virus interferon-alpha-beta receptor gene and its evolutionary relationship with the Orthopoxvirus genus

Abstract

In this work are used 59 haplotypes of the gene of the interferon-alpha-beta receptor of Monkeypox virus, Buffalopox virus, Camelpox virus, Cowpox virus, Ectromelia virus, Rabbitpox virus, Vaccinia virus and Variola virus, recuperated from GENBANK/NCBI. All sequences were publicly available on the Platform of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and were analyzed for their Molecular Variance (AMOVA), haplotypic diversity, mismatch, demographic and spatial expansion, molecular diversity and time of evolutionary divergence. The results suggested that there was a high diversity among haplotypes, with high numbers of transitions, transversions and mutations of the indels type for 5 of the 8 groups analyzed and with slight population expansion perceived in the neutrality tests. The estimators used in this study did not support a uniformity among all the results found, which ensures the lack of conservation of the gene, as well as its protein product, a fact that stimulates the use of therapies based on neutralizing antibodies and the development of new drugs that act as adjuvants to the function of the interferon-alpha-beta receptor gene.