FIG 4.

Comparison of the sequences at and around the matrix domain of different HBV variants. Rabbit polyclonal antimatrix antibodies raised against the peptide (shown above the alignment) that spans amino acid positions 91 to 128 of the L envelope protein of HBV variant A0 (see Table 1) were used for immunoprecipitation of HDV virions and quantification of the percentages of PreS1*-HDVs (see the text). The sequence of the HBV matrix domain is underlined. The variants of HBV are indicated at the left side of the alignment. The absolute numbers of HDV virions that were immunoprecipitated with the antimatrix antibodies were quantified using qPCR as described in Materials and Methods. The percentages of PreS1*-HDVs in the total population of secreted HDV genome-containing virus particles are indicated next to the variant names. The sequences are presented in descending order (from top to bottom) of the percentage of PreS1*-HDVs, with B2 shown at the top, since it produced the highest percentage of PreS1*-HDVs. The amino acids that are identical to the reference sequence (variant A0) are shown as dashes. The amino acids that are not identical to those of the reference sequence are shown by the single-letter amino acid code. At the bottom of the alignment, the identical amino acid positions are indicated by stars, conservative residues by colons, and a semiconservative residue by a period. The sequence of the matrix domain appeared to be conserved among different HBV variants, as expected.