Okamoto H, Okada S, Sugiyama Y, Yotsumoto S, Tanaka T, Yoshizawa H, Tsuda F, Miyakawa Y, Mayumi M
Immunology Division, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi, Japan.
Jpn J Exp Med. 1990 Jun;60(3):167-77.
The 5'-terminal sequence of the genome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was determined for two distinct HCV strains in human and chimpanzee carriers. It had a 5'-noncoding region of at least 324 nucleotides, well preserved by the two strains with a high homology (99.1%), followed by 1348 nucleotides that continued to the documented sequence of prototype HCV spanning 7310 nucleotides (European Patent Application #88310922.5). Based on these results, HCV is considered to possess an uninterrupted open reading frame encoding at least 2886 amino acid residues. Two structural genes were postulated on the 5'-terminal sequence of the HCV genome. One gene in the upstream region, highly conserved by the two strains at the amino acid level and rich in basic amino acids such as arginine, appeared to encode the viral capsid protein. The other gene in the downstream region was divergent between the two strains at both nucleotide and amino acid levels. It coded for nine potential N-glycosylation sites, and was considered to encode the viral envelope protein. Disclosure of the 5'-terminal sequence of the HCV genome would facilitate its taxonomic classification, and contribute toward immunological diagnosis of infection and development of vaccines.
测定了人类和黑猩猩携带者体内两种不同丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）毒株基因组的5'端序列。其5'非编码区至少有324个核苷酸，这两个毒株对其保存良好，同源性很高（99.1%），随后是1348个核苷酸，延续至已记录的原型HCV序列（共7310个核苷酸，欧洲专利申请#88310922.5）。基于这些结果，HCV被认为拥有一个不间断的开放阅读框，编码至少2886个氨基酸残基。在HCV基因组的5'端序列上推测有两个结构基因。上游区域的一个基因在氨基酸水平上被两个毒株高度保守，富含精氨酸等碱性氨基酸，似乎编码病毒衣壳蛋白。下游区域的另一个基因在核苷酸和氨基酸水平上在两个毒株之间存在差异。它编码九个潜在的N-糖基化位点，被认为编码病毒包膜蛋白。HCV基因组5'端序列的公开将有助于其分类学分类，并有助于感染的免疫诊断和疫苗的开发。
