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[Hepatitis B virus genotypes and the heterogeneity of its polymerase gene]
Guo-bing Zeng1, Shu-juan Wen, Jian Sun
1Department of Infectious Diseases, Nafang Hospital, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
Objective:
To study the heterogeneity of polymerase gene (P gene) within hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes based on a systematic analysis of 202 HBV P genes, providing some useful references for further studies on the relationship among HBV genotypes, P gene mutations, replication and nucleoside analogues drug-resistance.
Methods:
202 HBV complete sequences containing P genes were obtained from GenBank and were analysed using computer softwares.
Results:
There were some genotype-related characteristics of HBV P genes. As reverse transcriptase domain was concerned, there were more amino acid divergences in genotype C and D compared with these in genotype A. There were also amino acid substitutions in the A-F conserved regions of the reverse transcriptase domain within and between HBV genotypes.
Conclusions:
There are divergences of P genes and amino acids within and between HBV genotypes, which should be considered when amino acid changes are analyzed whether they are proposed to be drug-resistance mutations or the results from quasispecies-selected. Moreover, these divergences may affect the antiviral effect of nucleoside analogues on HBV with different genotypes.