Fig. 5.
Epitope mapping. (A) HCV epitope mapping by screening a random peptide phage-display library. Amino acid sequences of two phage clusters identified by screening a phage-display library (PhD-12) with AE as a source of antibodies are indicated. The direction of the arrow indicates the arrangement of the residues in the peptide critical for antibody binding. The key residues for the epitope are numbered based on the amino acid sequence of strain H77. (B) Alignment of amino acid sequences of the E2 regions among various HCV genotypes (10, 22). Epitopes I and II identified in this study are shown. A hyphen indicates an amino acid residue identical to that of the H77 sequence.