[Establishment of reference sequences of hepatitis B virus genotype B and C in China]

To establish the reference sequences of genotype B and C of hepatitis B virus in China.

Genome sequences of Hepatitis B virus isolated from different area in China were retrieved from GenBank. These genome sequences were alignmented and the most common sequences were regarded as reference sequences. The amino acid sequences were also alignmented.

The homology was 99.32% between Bc genome and Ba genome, and it was 95.52% between Bc genome and Bj genome. The S gene sequence homology was 99.71% between Bc and Ba, and it was 98.68% between Bc and Bj. The homology was 98.44% between Cc genome and C genome, and it was 93.97% between Cc genome and Caus genome. The S gene sequence homology was 99.27% between Cc and C, and it was 95.01% between Cc and Caus. There was significant difference at the sites of 1762, 1764, 1858 between genotype B and genotype C (P < 0.05). The amino acid sequences were also different between genotype B and genotype C.

Bc and Cc sequences of Hepatitis B virus can be regarded as the reference sequences of genotype B and C.