title: Differential amplification of hypervariable region 1 of hepatitis C virus by partially mismatched primers.
abstract: The quasispecies nature of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been well documented over its whole genome and the most variable domain is located at the 5' end of the second envelope region, the so-called hypervariable region 1 (HVR1). HVR1 has therefore been extensively used as the target for characterizing HCV quasispecies profiles. In this study, we reported our finding that partially mismatched primers preferentially amplify different HVR1 sequences in a heterogeneous virus population. This finding suggests a possible mechanism of bias during the amplification of HVR1 sequences and may be responsible for some conflicting data regarding evolutionary or clinical implications of HCV quasispecies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lyra
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Di Bisceglie
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D020137:Base Pair Mismatch; D017931:DNA Primers; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; C400562:HVR1 protein, Hepatitis C virus; D014764:Viral Proteins