Hepatitis C virus evolutionary patterns studied through analysis of full-genome sequences

The evolutionary pattern,, of hepatitis C virus (HCV), including the best-f itting nucleotide substitution model and the molecular clock hypothesis. we re investigated by analyzing full-genome sequences available in the HCV dat abase. The likelihood ratio test allowed us to discriminate among different evolutionary hypotheses. The phylogeny of the six major HCV types was accu rately inferred. and the final tree was rooted by reconstructing the hypoth etical HCV common ancestor with the maximum likelihood method. The presence of phylogenetic noise and the relative nucleotide substitution rates in th e different HCV genes were also examined. These results offer a general gui deline for the future of HCV phylogenetic analysis and also provide importa nt insights on HCV origin and evolution.