Nomenclature- and database-compatible names for the two Ebola virus variants that emerged in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2014

Viruses. 2014 Nov 24;6(11):4760-99. doi: 10.3390/v6114760.

Authors

Jens H Kuhn¹, Kristian G Andersen², Sylvain Baize³, Yīmíng Bào⁴, Sina Bavari⁵, Nicolas Berthet⁶, Olga Blinkova⁷, J Rodney Brister⁸, Anna N Clawson⁹, Joseph Fair¹⁰, Martin Gabriel¹¹, Robert F Garry¹², Stephen K Gire¹³, Augustine Goba¹⁴, Jean-Paul Gonzalez¹⁵, Stephan Günther¹⁶, Christian T Happi¹⁷, Peter B Jahrling¹⁸, Jimmy Kapetshi¹⁹, Gary Kobinger²⁰, Jeffrey R Kugelman²¹, Eric M Leroy²², Gael Darren Maganga²³, Placide K Mbala²⁴, Lina M Moses²⁵, Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum²⁶, Magassouba N'Faly²⁷, Stuart T Nichol²⁸, Sunday A Omilabu²⁹, Gustavo Palacios³⁰, Daniel J Park³¹, Janusz T Paweska³², Sheli R Radoshitzky³³, Cynthia A Rossi³⁴, Pardis C Sabeti³⁵, John S Schieffelin³⁶, Randal J Schoepp³⁷, Rachel Sealfon³⁸, Robert Swanepoel³⁹, Jonathan S Towner⁴⁰, Jiro Wada⁴¹, Nadia Wauquier⁴², Nathan L Yozwiak⁴³, Pierre Formenty⁴⁴

Affiliations

¹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. kuhnjens@mail.nih.gov.
² FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. kandersen@oeb.harvard.edu.
³ Unité de Biologie des Infections Virales Emergentes, Institut Pasteur, Lyon, France. sylvain.baize@inserm.fr.
⁴ Information Engineering Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. bao@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
⁵ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. sina.bavari.civ@mail.mil.
⁶ Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, B. P. 769, Franceville, Gabon. nicolas.berthet@pasteur.fr.
⁷ Information Engineering Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. olga.blinkova@nih.gov.
⁸ Information Engineering Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. jamesbr@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
⁹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. anna@logosconsulting.us.
¹⁰ Fondation Mérieux, Washington, DC 20036, USA. joseph.fair@fondation-merieux.org.
¹¹ Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Arbovirus and Hemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hamburg, 20259 Hamburg, Germany. gabriel@bni-hamburg.de.
¹² Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. rfgarry@tulane.edu.
¹³ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. sgire@oeb.harvard.edu.
¹⁴ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. augstgoba@yahoo.com.
¹⁵ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. jpgonzalez@metabiota.com.
¹⁶ Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Arbovirus and Hemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Hamburg, 20259 Hamburg, Germany. guenther@bni.uni-hamburg.de.
¹⁷ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. happic@run.edu.ng.
¹⁸ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. jahrlingp@niaid.nih.gov.
¹⁹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. jimmy_kap@hotmail.com.
²⁰ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. gary.kobinger@phac-aspc.gc.ca.
²¹ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. jeffrey.r.kugelman.mil@mail.mil.
²² Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, B. P. 769, Franceville, Gabon. eric.leroy@ird.fr.
²³ Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, B. P. 769, Franceville, Gabon. gael_maganga@yahoo.fr.
²⁴ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. mbalaplacide@gmail.com.
²⁵ Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. lmoses2@tulane.edu.
²⁶ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. muyembejj@gmail.com.
²⁷ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. cmagassouba01@gmail.com.
²⁸ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. stn1@cdc.gov.
²⁹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. omilabusa@yahoo.com.
³⁰ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. gustavo.f.palacios.ctr@us.army.mil.
³¹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. dpark@broadinstitute.org.
³² Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. januszp@nicd.ac.za.
³³ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. sheli.r.radoshitzky.ctr@mail.mil.
³⁴ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. cynthia.a.rossi.civ@mail.mil.
³⁵ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. pardis@broadinstitute.org.
³⁶ Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. jschieff@tulane.edu.
³⁷ United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. randal.j.schoepp.civ@mail.mil.
³⁸ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. sealfon@gmail.com.
³⁹ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. bobswanepoel@gmail.com.
⁴⁰ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. jit8@cdc.gov.
⁴¹ Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. wadaj@niaid.nih.gov.
⁴² Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. nadia.wauquier@gmail.com.
⁴³ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. nyozwiak@broadinstitute.org.
⁴⁴ FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. formentyp@who.int.

Abstract

In 2014, Ebola virus (EBOV) was identified as the etiological agent of a large and still expanding outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa and a much more confined EVD outbreak in Middle Africa. Epidemiological and evolutionary analyses confirmed that all cases of both outbreaks are connected to a single introduction each of EBOV into human populations and that both outbreaks are not directly connected. Coding-complete genomic sequence analyses of isolates revealed that the two outbreaks were caused by two novel EBOV variants, and initial clinical observations suggest that neither of them should be considered strains. Here we present consensus decisions on naming for both variants (West Africa: "Makona", Middle Africa: "Lomela") and provide database-compatible full, shortened, and abbreviated names that are in line with recently established filovirus sub-species nomenclatures.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

Democratic Republic of the Congo / epidemiology
Disease Outbreaks
Ebolavirus / classification*
Ebolavirus / genetics
Ebolavirus / isolation & purification
Guinea / epidemiology
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / epidemiology
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / virology*
Humans
Phylogeny
RNA, Viral / genetics
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Terminology as Topic*

Substances

RNA, Viral

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding