Paired chimpanzee hepatitis B virus (ChHBV) and mtDNA sequences suggest different ChHBV genetic variants are found in geographically distinct chimpanzee subspecies

The surface antigen gene region from five chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) i nfected chimpanzees was amplified by PCR and the sequence determined. Seque nce comparison confirmed that all of the sequences were chimpanzee hepatiti s B virus (chHBV) and they appeared to represent three distinct clusters or branches. To address the question of whether the three branches represente d recently identified subspecies of chimpanzees, we determined the sequence of the mitochondrial DNA hypervariable D loop from hair samples obtained f rom these five chimpanzees. The results indicated that the three chHBV bran ches reflected three distinct subspecies of chimpanzees that are from diffe rent geographic regions in West Africa. The complete HBV sequence from memb ers of the Pan troglodytes troglodytes cluster and the Pan troglodytes veru s cluster are in the published literature; we determined the complete genom e sequence for the third branch of HBV present in Pan troglodytes vellerosu s. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.