Detection of hepatitis delta virus recombinants in cultured cells co-transfected with cloned genotypes I and IIb DNA sequences.

It was reported previously that hepatitis delta virus (HDV), the only animal virus in which replication is performed by cellular RNA polymerase(s), undergoes RNA recombination. However, the previous RNA transfection system was somewhat limited in terms of practical application. Cultured cells were transfected with plasmids expressing replication-competent genotypes I and IIb HDV genomic RNAs to develop a better system for studying the fundamental aspects of HDV RNA recombination and HDV-related RNA species were examined using restriction fragment length polymorphisms and sequence analysis of cloned RT-PCR products. This novel experimental system generated efficiently recombinants between the two parental HDV sequences, but not between replication-defective HDV constructs. The genome organization of the HDV recombinants produced in this system resembled that observed previously in cultured cells co-transfected with genome I and IIb RNAs. These data indicate that replication-dependent HDV RNA recombination can be catalyzed by host RNA polymerases in cultured cells co-transfected with two cloned HDV sequences. This new DNA-based system is simpler than the previous RNA-based method of study, and generates a higher recombination frequency, facilitating study of HDV RNA recombination.