Detection of hepatitis B virus infection in wild-born chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus): phylogenetic relationships with human and other primate genotypes.

ABSTRACT: Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) was detected by serological testing for HBV surface antigen and by PCR assay for HBV DNA in serum samples from two common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes subsp. verus) born in West Africa. The complete genome sequences obtained by nucleotide sequencing of overlapping DNA fragments amplified by PCR were compared with HBV variants recovered from other primates and with human genotypes A to F. Both chimpanzee sequences were 3, 182 nucleotides in length, and the surface gene sequence predicted the existence of a, d, and w serological determinants. Neither sequence contained stop codons in the precore region. On phylogenetic analysis, the HBV variants infecting the chimpanzees clustered together with a third chimpanzee HBV isolate independently obtained from

SUBMITTER: MacDonald DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC111941 | biostudies-literature | 2000 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature