JGV Direct - Nakano et al.

Journal of General Virology

Fig. 2

Fig. 2. Amino acid sequences of Venezuelan HBsAg protein (a) and the core protein (b) predicted from nucleotide sequences and published sequences that contain deletions in the same region. Dashes indicate identity to the consensus sequences and changed amino acids are indicated by the appropriate single letter code. Shaded regions indicate positions of deletions that were detected in this study or from previously published data. Stop codons are indicated by *. (a) Ten sequences from Venezuela (VNZ8248-1/VNZ8339-1, VNZ8251, VNZ8255, VNZ8323, VNZ8349, VNZ8351, VNZ8371, VNZ8375, VNZ8381 and VNZ8624) are identical and are shown as Consensus of Venezuela. VNZ8248-2/VNZ8339-2, VNZ8337 and VNZ8346 have sequences that differ from the consensus. X in VNZ8346 indicates Leu₉ or Pro₉ translated from the ambiguous nucleotide sequence. AJ003026, AJ003028 and AJ003027 are HBV sequences that were reported in an HBsAg-negative individual (Grethe et al., 1998). Proposed epitopes of antigenic regions of the hydrophilic core of HBsAg protein, HBs1 to HBs5, are shown. Residues Gly₁₄₅, Lys₁₂₂, Leu₁₂₇ and Lys₁₆₀, which are conserved among all Venezuelan sequences and are determinants of subtype adw4, are indicated by #. The 'a' determinant loop is shown by double underlining. (b) Eleven sequences from Venezuela (VNZ8248/VNZ8339, VNZ8251, VNZ8255, VNZ8323, VNZ8346, VNZ8349, VNZ8351, VNZ8371, VNZ8375-1, VNZ8381 and VNZ8624) are identical and are shown as Consensus of Venezuela. VNZ8337 and VNZ8375-2 have sequences that differ from the consensus. A BLAST search identified 17 sequences within GenBank/DDBJ/EMBL, L42358–L42366 (Günther et al., 1996) and AF143298–AF143307 (Preikschat et al., 1999), that had deletions in approximately the same region of the core. X indicates frame shifts. The deletion of Venezuelan strains between 152 and 153 is generally observed in all genotypes except genotype A, and is not specific to Venezuelan strains. The major B cell epitope of HBcAg and HBeAg (HBc/e1) is shown.

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