Sequence of hepatitis G virus genome isolated from a Japanese patient with non-A-E-hepatitis: amplification and cloning by long reverse transcription-PCR.

The nucleotide sequence of hepatitis G virus (HGV) genome was determined by analysis of cDNA clones obtained by long reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (long RT PCR) and 5'- and 3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) from a Japanese patient (Iw) with non A-E hepatitis. The HGV-Iw genome, consisting of 9375 nucleotides, contains a long open reading frame encoding 2873 amino acid residues. Comparison of HGV-Iw with two American isolates of HGV and one African isolate of GB virus C (GBV-C) indicates that although the nucleotide sequences of these isolates were considerably divergent (86.2% to 93.3%), the deduced amino acid sequences shared an extremely high degree of identity (96.1% to 100%). It was also found that HGV-Iw was more closely related to the HGV isolates from USA than to the GBV-C isolate from Africa.