FIG. 1.

Molecular clones of HCV. A chimeric molecular clone (HCV-3) containing the bacteriophage T7 promoter upstream from the 5′ UTR and coding region of HCV-1, type 1a, and the 3′UTR of HCV-J, type 1b, was recloned into pUC19 and modified to create clones: (B) HCV-4PC, (C) HCV-4P Cmh (mutant helicase), and (D) HCV-1PC. All clones except the parent clone HCV-3 had the consensus amino acid sequence for HCV-1 according to Choo et al. and either one of two different extreme 3′ ends (XbaI with or without the hepatitis delta virus ribozyme [↑] [49]). The aa 1236 and 1237 had K-to-A and S-to-A substitutions, respectively, introduced into the helicase domain of NS3 in HCV-4PCmh (C). HCV-1PC (D) represents the full-length HCV-1 genome.