title: The Taiwanese hepatitis C virus genome: sequence determination and mapping the 5' termini of viral genomic and antigenomic RNA.
abstract: The complete nucleotide sequence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) cloned from the liver tissue of a Taiwanese patient with post-transfusion type C hepatitis was determined. The 5' end of HCV genomic RNA was located 341 nucleotides upstream from the initiation codon for the viral polyprotein open reading frame. The 5' end of the viral antigenomic RNA was shown to have 13 consecutive As. Thus the 3' terminus of the viral genome is a stretch of U which ends about 50 nucleotides downstream from the stop codon of the large open reading frame. The nucleotide sequence homology between this HCV strain and two Japanese isolates was 90.5 and 90.7%, respectively. Homology with the United States strain, however, was only 77.8%. Accordingly, the indigenous Taiwanese HCV strain is of the same subtype as the Japanese isolates. Novel features of the viral genome termini are possibly relevant to HCV genome replication.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012367:RNA, Viral