antibody with neutralizing functionality has been demonstrated to target antigenic site I. Other proteins, such as the nucleoprotein, have been shown to be unable to elicit production of virus neutralizing antibodies. The epitopes which bind neutralizing antibodies are both linear and conformational. Evolution All extant rabies viruses appear to have evolved within the last 1500 years. There are seven genotypes of Rabies lyssavirus. In Eurasia cases are due to three of these—genotype 1 (classical rabies) and to a lesser extent genotypes 5 and 6 (European bat lyssaviruses type-1 and -2). Genotype 1 evolved in Europe in the 17th century and spread to Asia, Africa and the Americas as a result of European exploration and colonization. Bat rabies in North America appears to have been present since 1281 AD (95% confidence interval: 906–1577 AD). The rabies virus appears to have undergone an evolutionary shift in hosts from Chiroptera (bats) to a species of Carnivora (i.e. raccoon or skunk) as a result of an homologous recombination event that occurred hundreds of years ago. This recombination event altered the gene that encodes the virus glycoprotein that is necessary for receptor recognition and binding. Application Rabies lyssavirus is used in research for viral neuronal tracing to establish synaptic connections and directionality of synaptic transmission. Rabies Virus Proteins Rabies virus is estimated to cause around 55,000 deaths per year across the world and has a death rate of nearly 100%. These statistics coupled with the fact that there is currently no specific treatment, or antiviral drug makes research on the virus of vital importance for the scientific community in order to possibly lower the current death rate. The rabies virus phosphoprotein and polymerase are both important targets for antivirals and are currently used to create the vaccine used for domestic and wild animals. A lot of research is being done to better understand the specific roles and functions of the L-P protein because there is significant evidence already that it could be one of the most important proteins to target for future drugs. There are five proteins that are coded for by the rabies virus genome—phosphoprotein (P), polymerase (L), matrix protein (M), nucleoprotein (N), and glycoprotein (G). These five proteins are transcribed into mRNA in different quantities. The protein transcribed the most is the nucleoprotein, then the phosphoprotein, then the matrix protein, then the glycoprotein and finally the polymerase. Of those proteins, the ones that