Fig 5.

Effects of different NS5A mutations on HCV production. (A) Schematic distribution of adaptive mutations in NS5A. The three domains of NS5A are based on previous work by others (1, 38). (B) Effects of adaptive amino acid mutations in NS5A on HCV production. Infectious HCV RNAs containing adaptive amino acid mutations in NS5A individually or in different combinations, which are shown at the bottom, were transfected into Huh-7.5 cells, as described in Materials and Methods. At 72 h p.t., the supernatants were collected for the determination of infectious HCV titers by serial dilution and IFA. The enhancement of HCV production by individual NS5A adaptive mutations, except for D2360A, is either statistically significant (P < 0.05) or highly significant (P < 0.01; V2440L, K2320E-E2337K-K2350T-D2360A-V2440L, and NS5A).