Cloning of HCV envelop region of different genotype and analysis of their hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity
Objective To study gene variation of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope region isolated from different genotypes (1a, 1b, 2a, 2c, 3a). Methods Genes of the envelope region (1300 1870nt) of different genotypes of HCV were cloned, sequenced and analyzed. Results The sequences of different HCV genome was not identical. The homology of the nucleotide sequences of different HCV clones isolated from the same sample was more than 99.2%, with the amino acid more than 99.9%. The homology of the nucleotides and amino acid sequences of the same subtype was more than 80%, whereas 63.9% 75.0% and 64.9% 72.8% for the homology of the nucleotides and amino acid sequences of the same type. The homology of the nucleotides sequences of different HCV types was 59.4% 67.0%, and 56.5% 66.3% for amino acid. Some amino acids among the sequences of different genotypes were relatively conservative. The hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the HVR region among different genotypes were less variable than that of its downstream gene. Conclusion Gene variation of HCV envelope region may have some regular patterns.