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Interaction of wild‐type and naturally occurring deleted variants of hepatitis B virus core polypeptides leads to formation of mosaic particles
Author(s) -
Preikschat Petra,
Kazaks Andris,
Dishlers Andris,
Pumpens Paul,
Krüger Detlev H.,
Meisel Helga
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)01836-6
Subject(s) - virology , hepatitis b virus , mutant , biology , gene , escherichia coli , virus , genome , wild type , genetics
The simultaneous presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes carrying wild‐type (wt) and in‐frame deleted variants of the HBV core gene has been identified as a typical feature of HBV‐infected renal transplant patients with severe liver disease. To investigate possible interactions of wt and deleted core polypeptides a two‐vector Escherichia coli expression system ensuring their concomitant synthesis has been developed. Co‐expression of wt and a mutant core lacking 17 amino acid residues (77–93) within the immunodominant region led to the formation of mosaic particles, whereas the mutant alone was incapable of self‐assembly.