FLICKR, GLOBAL PANORAMA
Within the first few months of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the virus became less infectious in bats, the animal in which the pathogen is thought to have originated, and much more potent in humans. A mutation to a glycoprotein on the surface of the virus increased its ability to infect human cells, which could have contributed to the explosive scale of the outbreak.
The finding is described in two papers published last week (November 3) in Cell. Both studies compare viral genomes sampled at various times during the outbreak, finding that a single mutation that emerged three to four months into the epidemic spread rapidly through the viral population. This new strain caused higher mortality in humans and infected people at a faster rate, researchers ...
