title: Genotyping the hepatitis B virus with a fragment of the HBV DNA polymerase gene in Shenyang, China.
abstract: The hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been classified into eight genotypes (A-H) based on intergenotypic divergence of at least 8% in the complete nucleotide sequence or more than 4% in the S gene. To facilitate the investigation of the relationship between the efficacy of drug treatment and the mutation with specific genotype of HBV, we have established a new genotyping strategy based on a fragment of the HBV DNA polymerase gene. Pairwise sequence and phylogenetic analyses were performed using CLUSTAL V (DNASTAR) on the eight (A-H) standard full-length nucleotide sequences of HBV DNA from GenBank (NCBI) and the corresponding semi-nested PCR products from the HBV DNA polymerase gene. The differences in the semi-nested PCR fragments of the polymerase genes among genotypes A through F were greater than 4%, which is consistent with the intergenotypic divergence of at least 4% in HBV DNA S gene sequences. Genotyping using the semi-nested PCR products of the DNA polymerase genes revealed that only genotypes B, C, and D were present in the 50 cases, from Shenyang, China, with a distribution of 11 cases (22%), 25 cases (50%), and 14 cases (28%) respectively. These results demonstrate that our new genotyping method utilizing a fragment of the HBV DNA polymerase gene is valid and can be employed as a general genotyping strategy in areas with prevalent HBV genotypes A through F. In Shenyang, China, genotypes C, B, and D were identified with this new genotyping method, and genotype C was demonstrated to be the dominant genotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110817, China. mayingwfd@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Juan
authors.forename: Xiao Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Dou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase