FIG. 1.

Alignment of deduced HBsAg amino acid sequences of isolates R2, F2, F3, and F4 with published HBV sequences, genotype D (GenBank/EMBL accession numbers are given for all published sequences). Topological predictions are based on the data of Chen et al. (9) and Persson and Argos (27). Functional areas of the major hydrophilic region of HBsAg are indicated as HBs1 to -5, referring to the work of Carman (6). The asterisk indicates methionine 125, which is observed as well in some local HBV isolates (unpublished data) and might therefore represent local variation. Cons.D, consensus of published genotype D sequences. All cysteine positions of the HBs epitopes and position 160, which is crucial for r/w subtype determinant expression, are given in bold type.