Figure 2.

Alignment of partial nucleotide sequences of HBV isolates derived from anti-HBe carriers. The consensus sequence (based on wild-type genotype A strains) is indicated at the top. Dots represent the same nucleotides as in the consensus sequence. Letters at the left represent the genotypes of the strains. The AT-rich region (nt 1789-1795) and the direct repeat DR1 (nt 1824-1834) are underlined. The two common point mutations, i.e. the double substitution in the core promoter (nt 1762-1764) and the precore stop codon mutation (nt 1896), are indicated by arrows. The other substitutions constitute the uncommon point mutations. The initiation codons for precore and core proteins are also shown. HVR: Hypervariable region (nt 1751-1755).