Close evolutionary relatedness of the hepatitis B virus and murine leukemia virus polymerase gene sequences

Previous work indicates that hepatitis B virus (HBV) and retroviruses utilize a unique mechanism for genome replication by reverse transcription of RNA and share homology in biologically important nucleotide and protein sequences. The data presented here extend previous findings of sequence homology among the genomes of the members of these virus families. HBV was found to possess sequences homologous to the retrovirus protease and reverse transcriptase gene sequences. Homology was not found to the retrovirus integrase sequence consistent with the observation that hepadnaviruses do not integrate into cellular DNA as a necessary step in their replication cycle. Overall, the homology of the hepadnavirus polymerase gene was strongest with that of the murine leukemia viruses (MLVs). Also, the hepadnavirus polymerase shares organizational similarities to the MLV polymerase sequence. Analysis suggests that the ancestor of both hepadnaviruses and retroviruses possessed an overlapping long open reading frame in the polymerase gene sequence. In addition, low stringency blot hybridization using hepadnavirus DNA probes indicates that HBV is more closely related to MLV sequences than the sequences of MLV-related viruses and endogenous retrovirus-like genetic elements. Taken together, the data indicate that the polymerase gene sequence of the hepadnavirus and MLV genomes are organized in a similar fashion which suggests that these viruses evolved from a common ancestor.