Evolutionary and molecular analysis of the emergent severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus

► Evolutionary and structural analyses of all SFTSV gene sequences plus a new isolate. ► Discovery of evidence for homologous recombination in SFTSV. ► Reconstruction of SFTSV epidemic history; extant lineages originated 50-150 years ago. ► Structural conservation between SFTSV and RVFV nucleocapsid residues.