Fig. 1.

Destruction of the TLM abolishes infectivity of DHBV. (A) Immunofluorescence microscopy of infected PDH using an L-specific antiserum. Cells were infected with 100 MGE WT DHBV, DHBVD2, or DHBVD1/2 mutant. Cells were fixed 4 days after infection. Hoechst staining was used to visualize nuclei. The photographs were taken at ×200 magnification. (B) Immunoblot analysis of lysates from PDHs infected with WT DHBV or the mutants by using a DHBV core-specific antiserum. Uninfected PDHs served as negative control. (C) PDHs were infected with 100 MGE. Cells were harvested 7 days after infection and analyzed for replicative intermediates by Southern blotting. (D) Analysis of cccDNA by PCR. The cccDNA was isolated 3 days after infection and amplified by PCR by using cccDNA-selective primers. Uninfected PDHs served as negative control.