FIG 1.

Analysis of NC-associated HBV DNA extracted following exogenous nuclease digestion. HBV-replicating plasmids expressing the WT or the indicated HBc mutants were transfected into HepG2 (A) or Huh7 (B) cells. HBV NC-associated DNA (core DNA) was isolated from cytoplasmic lysate of transfected cells following removal of the transfected plasmids by MNase digestion (see Materials and Methods) and analyzed by Southern blotting using a viral DNA probe. “Env⁺” or “Env⁻” denotes that the HBV envelope proteins were expressed or not expressed by the transfected plasmids. SS, single-stranded [(−)-strand] DNA. Lanes 9 to 16 in panel A represent a longer exposure (exp) of the same samples shown in lanes 1 to 8.