COMPLETE CODING SEQUENCE OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOTYPE 6A

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 6a is found in a restricted part of S outh East Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam. We determined the full length coding sequence of a type 6a isolate (EUHK2) obtained from a Hong Kong blood donor. The sequence of EUHK2 contained a single open reading frame coding for a polyprotein of 3018 amino acids, with in the range of 3008 to 3037 for other HCV genotypes. The full length sequence of EUHK2 showed 30.3%-32.9% nucleotide (24.3%-29.4% amino aci d) sequence divergence from genotypes 1-4, but only 27.7% (20.7% amino acid) divergence from JK046 (''type 11a''). These similarity values w ere intermediate between those of other HCV genotypes (minimum 28.4%) and between subtypes (maximum 25%). The close evolutionary relationshi p of EUHK2 with JK046 was further indicated by their grouping together by phylogenetic analysis. (C) 1997 Academic Press.