[Cloning of hepatitis A virus genomes]

The hepatitis A virus (HAV) belongs to the family of Picorna viruses/Enteroviridae. Its growing pattern in cell cultures deviates from the pattern found in other Picorna viruses: HAV does not have cytopathic effects and the replication rate of the virus in cell culture is lower than that one of comparable enteroviruses. In order to be able to understand the biochemistry and gene structure of this virus the genomic virus RNS was cloned molecularly as cDNS and the nucleotid sequence of the genom was partly clarified. The aim of our investigations is to characterize the neutralising antigen protein and the part of the gene coding for this protein, to express such a cloned part of the gene in bacteria, and to produce vaccine against HAV.