Fig. 1

Gene heterogeneity and protein polymorphism of Monkeypox viruses in 2022. a The phylogenetic tree of B14R genes of MPXVs. Strains in red belong to the Congo Basin clade; those in black are from the West African clade before 2022, while the ones in blue are the current strains from 2022. Brace (2) includes strains from the ancient West African clade, while (1) includes strains from after 2017, primarily responsible for the current epidemic. In the Congo Basin clade, strains within brace (3) belong to sub-CBC II and those outside brace (3) belong to sub-CBC I. The hMpxV/Luxembourg/LNS-0899423/2022 strain from the West African clade shows similarity to the Congo Basin clade. b The polymorphism in the length of proteins encoded by B14R genes of monkeypox viruses (MPXVs). Blue bars indicate a consistency of more than 90%, while cyan bars a indicate consistency of less than 90%. In the Congo Basin clade, MPXVs express two product lengths; one is 326 AA (sub-CBC I, or Congo Basin clade I) and the other is 206-210 AA (sub-CBC II, or Congo Basin clade II). The others belong to the West African clade. c The proteins encoded by D7L, O1L, B5R, and T4 genes of MPXVs. In each of them, the first is the standard length of the protein, while the others are its variants. Proteins are shown as α-helix domains (according to the Gamier-Robson method) here. d The crmB gene (below) and its encoding protein (upper) of hMpxV/Luxembourg/LNS-0899423/2022. This strain is from the West African clade but displays an interesting hallmark belonging to the Congo Basin clade. e, f The complexities of B14R proteins and their ligands. In most Congo Basin clade isolates, three hydrogen bonds are formed via 261G, 262M, and 316S to the ligand IL-1β’s 113N, 108K, and 20Q, with bond lengths of 3.4 Å, 3.4 Å, and 2.7 Å respectively (e). In most current MPXVs 2022, four hydrogen bonds are formed via the 108D, 131Q, and 113N (twice) to the ligand IL-1β’s 146Q, 27G, and 79K and 84T, with the bond lengths of 2.0 Å, 2.0 Å, 3.0 Å, and 3.4 Å respectively (f). The cyan ribbon and blue amino acid residues, and the green ribbon and red amino acid residues represent the B14R proteins and the IL-1β ligands, respectively. The numbers denote the length values of hydrogen bonds