title: A vestigial X open reading frame in duck hepatitis B virus.
abstract: Duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) appears to lack a homologue of the X protein found in mammalian hepadnaviruses. By replacing stop codons in the corresponding region of the DHBV genome, a hypothetical protein which closely matches the hydrophilicity profile of X proteins can be predicted, despite limited sequence homology. We conclude that a full-length X protein was once a common feature of the hepadnaviruses, conserved in structure but not sequence.
authors.affiliation: Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, Fairfield, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004372:Ducks; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D015611:Hepatitis B Virus, Duck / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
chemical_list: D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D015534:Trans-Activators; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins; C057628:hepatitis B virus X protein