{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiad165","title":"APOBEC3F Is a Mutational Driver of the Human Monkeypox Virus Identified in the 2022 Outbreak","abstract":"BACKGROUND: On May 6, 2022, a powerful outbreak of monkeypox virus (MPXV) had been reported outside of Africa, with many continuing new cases being reported around the world. Analysis of mutations among the 2 different lineages present in the 2021 and 2022 outbreaks revealed the presence of G->A mutations occurring in the 5'GpA context, indicative of APOBEC3 cytidine deaminase activity. METHODS: By using a sensitive polymerase chain reaction (differential DNA denaturation PCR) method allowing differential amplification of AT-rich DNA, we analyzed the level of APOBEC3-induced MPXV editing in infected cells and in patients. RESULTS: We demonstrate that G->A hypermutated MPXV genomes can be recovered experimentally from APOBEC3 transfection followed by MPXV infection. Here, among the 7 human APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases (A3A-A3C, A3DE, A3F-A3H), only APOBEC3F was capable of extensively deaminating cytidine residues in MPXV genomes. Hyperedited genomes were also recovered in ∼42% of analyzed patients. Moreover, we demonstrate that substantial repair of these mutations occurs. Upon selection, corrected G->A mutations escaping drift loss contribute to the MPXV evolution observed in the current epidemic. CONCLUSIONS: Stochastic or transient overexpression of the APOBEC3F gene exposes the MPXV genome to a broad spectrum of mutations that may be modeling the mutational landscape after multiple cycles of viral replication.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2023,"id":320778,"datarank":0.5806801516361837,"base_score":3.8712010109078907,"endowment":3.8712010109078907,"self_citation_contribution":0.5806801516361837,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5806801516361837,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":47,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9618,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":290820,"name":"Kyle A. Raymond","orcid":"0000-0001-8670-2852","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032697,"name":"Laetitia Boutin","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032033,"name":"Sophie Guillier","orcid":"0000-0003-2106-7901","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560702,"name":"Frédéric Lemoine","orcid":"0000-0001-9576-4449","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032034,"name":"Olivier Ferraris","orcid":"0000-0002-1193-5835","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032035,"name":"Jean‐Nicolas Tournier","orcid":"0000-0002-4542-2421","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032036,"name":"Frédéric Iseni","orcid":"0000-0003-3909-9688","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":621564,"name":"Etienne Simon‐Lorière","orcid":"0000-0001-8420-7743","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032037,"name":"Jean‐Pierre Vartanian","orcid":"0000-0001-8079-8814","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1032696,"name":"Rodolphe Suspène","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":48,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:07:27.434133Z","pmid":"37224627","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}