Figure 3.

Dendogram and alignment of E1 amino acid sequences from plasma (P), brain/frontal cortex (B), and liver (L). The genotype 1a consensus amino acid sequence appears at the top of the alignment in panel A, and the 1b and 3a consensus sequences are shown at the top of panels B and C, respectively. Black regions in the consensus sequence are potential N-linked glycosylation sites. Very rare mutations (shown in squares) are present in <1% of GenBank sequences of the same genotype, rare mutations (shown in circles) are present in 1%-10% of GenBank sequences, and common mutations (unadorned) are present in >10% of GenBank sequences. Note that the brain/frontal cortex and plasma sequences of patient 20028 are 1a, whereas the liver sequence is 1b. Amino acid position numbering is based on the numbering of the H77 clone. In panel D, samples from the 13 patients with hepatitis C virus viremia yielded 30 specimens with E1 amplicons that could be unambiguously sequenced: Sequences marked with an asterisk differed from the liver and plasma sequences from the same patient. The sequences from patient 20028 (shown in black) did not cluster together.