African origin of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus

Yasuhito Tanaka, Masashi Mizokami*, Etsuro Orito, Ken ichi Ohba, Takanobu Kato, Yutaka Kondo, Innocent Mboudjeka, Leopold Zekeng, Lazare Kaptue, Blaise Bikandou, Pierre M'Pele, Jun Takehisa, Masanori Hayami, Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Takashi Gojobori

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ninety-four GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV) RNA-positive serum samples were obtained from all over the world. We found that all 15 GBV- C/HGV isolates from the Pygmies and the Bantu in the Central African region had a 12-amino acid indel (i.e. insertion or deletion) in the non-structural protein (NS) 5A region. Phylogenetic analyses of the NS5A region, using GBV- A as an outgroup, showed that these 15 isolates had diverged from the common ancestor much earlier than the remaining isolates, indicating an African origin of GBVC/HGV.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)143-148
Number of pages6
JournalFEBS Letters
Volume423
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 20 1998
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Africa
  • GB virus C
  • Hepatitis G virus
  • Indel
  • NS5A
  • Phylogenetic analysis
  • Pygmy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Structural Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Cell Biology

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