[Molecular evolutionary analysis of GB viruses and hepatitis G virus]

Recently, new blood-transfusion transmissible viruses, called hepatitis G virus(HGV) and GB virus-C(GBV-C), have been reported. It was found that two viruses were independent isolates of the same virus, the genomic structure resembled that of flavivirus family, and GBV-C/HGV was closely related to HCV. To elucidate the evolutionary relationship between hepatitis C virus(HCV) and GBV-C/HGV, we constructed the phylogenetic trees for the putative RNA helicase and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase regions of the Flaviviridae by UPGMA. The tree showed that HCV was closely related to GB virus-B(GBV-B) and HGV was more nearer to GB virus-A(GBV-A) rather than HCV.