Molecular cloning of the human hepatitis C virus genome from Japanese patients with non-A, non-B hepatitis.

TLDR

The study discusses how HCV‑J relates to other animal RNA viruses and its genome organization. The authors sequenced the 9,413‑nt HCV‑J genome from cDNA clones of plasma from Japanese chronic hepatitis patients. The HCV‑J genome encodes a 3,010‑aa polyprotein and differs by 22.6 % at the nucleotide level and 15.1 % at the amino acid level from the American isolate, indicating distinct subtypes.

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence of the Japanese type of hepatitis C virus (HCV-J) genome, consisting of 9413 nucleotides, was determined by analyses of cDNA clones from plasma specimens from Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis. HCV-J genome contains a long open reading frame that can encode a sequence of 3010 amino acid residues. Comparison of HCV-J with the American isolate of HCV showed 22.6% difference in nucleotide sequence and 15.1% difference in amino acid sequence. Thus HCV-J and the American isolate of HCV are probably different subtypes of HCV. The relationship of HCV-J with other animal RNA virus families and the putative organization of the HCV-J genome are discussed.