GENOMIC ANALYSIS OF 2 GB VIRUS-A VARIANTS ISOLATED FROM CAPTIVE MONKEYS

The recent isolation of GB viruses A and B from GB agent infected tama rins and their lack of involvement in human hepatitis has sparked inte rest in the origin of these viruses. Several healthy non-human primate species have been shown to harbour sequences 52-79% identical to the GBV-A 5' nontranslated region. In this paper we report the near genome length sequence of GBV-A(mx), 70047 and GBV-A(tri) 1122. These sequen ces support previous observations about the genomic organization of GB V-A and provide insight into the genomic variability within this virus genus. Although the GBV-A variant polyproteins possess many motifs co nserved between other members of the Flaviviridae, they do not encode a basic core-like protein. Amino acid sequence comparisons and phyloge netic analysis demonstrate variability within the GBV-A genus similar to that observed between hepatitis C virus (HCV) types. However, genom ic organization and disease association demonstrate a closer evolution ary relationship to GBV-C than to HCV.