Journal of General Virology

Characterization of hepatitis B virus genotypes among Yucpa Indians in Venezuela

Tatsunori Nakano,^1,2 Ling Lu,¹ Xiaolei Hu,¹ Masashi Mizokami,² Etsuro Orito,² Craig N. Shapiro,¹ Stephan C. Hadler¹ and Betty H. Robertson¹

¹ Hepatitis Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
² Second Department of Medicine, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan

The complete genome sequences of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from 12 HBV-infected Yucpa Indians of Venezuela, a group with highly endemic HBV, were amplified and sequenced. The 12 isolates were closely related to each other, with 98.6–100 % nucleotide identity. A phylogenetic tree based on the complete genome indicated clearly that they were genotype F. Three individuals had evidence of infection with two different HBV deletion mutants. In two individuals, a three amino acid deletion was identified just prior to the 'a' determinant loop of the S region. A third individual was infected with virus that contained a complete core reading frame and a population that contained a deletion in the middle of the core region. These results indicate that genotype F HBV is present in the Venezuelan Yucpa Amerindians and the complete genome sequence allowed the identification of two unique deletion mutants in a limited set of samples.

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© 2000 SGM

This article is now available in the February 2001 print issue of JGV (vol. 82, 359–365). The complete issue of the journal may be seen in electronic form on JGV Online.