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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Detection of Low Copy Number Integrated Viral DNA Formed by In Vitro Hepatitis B Infection
Published on: November 7, 2018
Adaptive evolution of proteins in hepatitis B virus during divergence of genotypes
Shengdi Li1,2, Zhen Wang1, Yixue Li3,4
1Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue Yang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is classified into several genotypes, correlated with different geographic distributions, clinical outcomes and susceptible human populations. It is crucial to investigate the evolutionary significance behind the diversification of HBV genotypes, because it improves our understanding of their pathological differences and pathogen-host interactions. Here, we performed comprehensive analysis of HBV genome sequences collected from public database. With a stringent criteria, we generated a dataset of 2992 HBV genomes from eight major genotypes. In particular, we applied a specified classification of non-synonymous and synonymous variants in overlapping regions, to distinguish joint and independent gene evolutions. We confirmed the presence of selective constraints over non-synonymous variants in consideration of overlapping regions. We then performed the McDonald-Kreitman test and revealed adaptive evolutions of non-synonymous variants during genotypic differentiation. Remarkably, we identified strong positive selection that drove the differentiation of PreS1 domain, which is an essential regulator involved in viral transmission. Our study presents novel evidences for the adaptive evolution of HBV genotypes, which suggests that these viruses evolve directionally for maintenance or improvement of successful infections.
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