Quantifying the diversification of hepatitis C virus (HCV) during primary infection: estimates of the in vivo mutation rate.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is present in the host with multiple variants generated by its error prone RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Little is known about the initial viral diversification and the viral life cycle processes that influence diversity. We studied the diversification of HCV during acute infection in 17 plasma donors, with frequent sampling early in infection. To analyze these data, we developed a new stochastic model of the HCV life cycle. We found that the accumulation of mutations is surprisingly slow: at 30 days, the viral population on average is still 46% identical to its transmitted viral genome. Fitting the model to the sequence data, we estimate the median in vivo viral mutation rate is 2.5×10⁻⁵ mutations per nucleotide per genome replication (range 1.6-6.2×10⁻⁵), about 5-

SUBMITTER: Ribeiro RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3426522 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature