Screening，Cloning and Genetic Heterogeneity of the Hepatitis Delta Vires Antigen——Coding Regions Isolated from Different Areas an d Population in China

More than ten Chinese hepatitis,delta virus isolates were coml,ared by sequencing the antigen-ceding regions after cloned to PGEM-3Zf(-)or PGEM-Tvector.The viruses compared in-cluded the Henan-1,Henan-2,Henan-3,Xinjiang ,Neimeng,Sichuan,Xizang,Liaoning,Beijing,Guangxi and Shanghai strains derived from asymptomatic carriers and chronic or fulminant hepatitis patients.It was found that all HDV isolates prevalente in China were genotype I but there wereat least two subgroups. The genet ic heterogeneity of HDAg-coding regions existed among theHDV isolates from different areas or population.These strains from Henan and Xinjiang areasshared over 92.1%nucleotide and 86.9%amino acid homology with Taiwan strain that repre-sents genotype IA.But the strains from Sichuan,Xizang-1,Neimeng-1,Liaoning,Beijing andGuangxi are closely related to US-1strain representing genotype IB(over 94.3%and 88.8%i-dentity in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences respectively).The Shanghai strain is closely re-lated to Italy strain and ov