TABLE 3.

Effect of mutations on efficiency of coassembly into virus-like particles

Mutation in δAg speciesa	Pairing of δAg-S and δAg-L used in cotransfectionb
	δAg-S mutant/δAg-L			δAg-S/δAg-L mutant			δAg-S mutant/δAg-L mutant
	I	O	O/I	I	O	O/I	I	O	O/I
R13	1.6	0.45	0.29	2.2	0.16	0.072	11	0.63	0.059
L17	1.9	1.0	0.54	3.1	0.54	0.17	2.8	0.050	0.017
W20	0.64	0.32	0.50	2.1	0.17	0.079	4.4	0.0070	0.0010
V21	1.3	0.82	0.63	0.35	0.35	1.0	0.57	0.25	0.44
R24	1.5	1.2	0.81	0.34	0.46	1.3	0.77	0.28	0.36
W50	0.77	0.27	0.35	1.2	0.037	0.030	2.0	0.037	0.019
L51	1.2	0.94	0.75	1.6	0.25	0.16	4.9	0.050	0.010
I54	2.1	0.64	0.29	0.86	0.052	0.060	4.2	0.050	0.011
I57	3.3	0.75	0.22	3.4	0.030	0.0080	9.1	0.0090	0.00090

^aAs described in Fig. 1. 

^bThe cotransfections used in these coassembly experiments involved a plasmid expressing the envelope proteins of HBV along with plasmids expressing the forms of δAg-S and δAg-L, either wild type or mutant, as indicated. Other details are described in Materials and Methods. The immunoblot analyses were quantitated and used to deduce the values indicated for the ratio of δAg-S form to δAg-L in transfected cells (I) or in virus-like particles (O). Also shown is the ratio O/I. As a positive control, the coassembly of wild-type δAg-S by wild-type δAg-L gave average values for I, O, and O/I of 1.6, 0.44, and 0.30, respectively.