Fig. 1

Maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree with 54 whole genome sequences, including 51 previously available in NCBI GenBank and representative of the current genetic diversity. The ML tree was inferred with the IQ-TREE web-server for 1000 ultra-fast bootstrap replicates under the K3Pu + F + I substitution model as estimated by ModelFinder and rooted to the earliest MPXV sequence (KJ642614). The topology was visualized by FigTree (v.1.4.2) (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/). Only SH-like values ≥ 0.8 were shown on the tree. Genomes highlighted in red correspond to the newly characterized MPXV sequences from Benin, belonging to the prior Western African clade (proposed as MPXV clade 2) [4]