Variability and conservation in hepatitis B virus core protein.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hepatitis B core protein (HBVc) has been extensively studied from both a structural and immunological point of view, but the evolutionary forces driving sequence variation within core are incompletely understood.

Results

In this study, the observed variation in HBVc protein sequence has been examined in a collection of a large number of HBVc protein sequences from public sequence repositories. An alignment of several hundred sequences was carried out, and used to analyse the distribution of polymorphisms along the HBVc. Polymorphisms were found at 44 out of 185 amino acid positions analysed and were clustered predominantly in those parts of HBVc forming the outer surface and spike on intact capsid. The relationship between HBVc diversity and HBV genotype was exami

SUBMITTER: Chain BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1173110 | biostudies-literature | 2005 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature