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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Antiviral Res. 2015 Aug 10;122:91–100. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2015.08.005

Fig 1. Proposed model for the molecular pathway of HBV cccDNA formation.

Fig 1

In the cytoplasm, completion of viral plus-strand DNA synthesis inside the nucleocapsid triggers the removal of the viral polymerase from minus-strand DNA. This deproteinization reaction is associated with a nucleocapsid conformational change (“uncoating” step 1), resulting in exposure of the nuclear localization signal (NLS) at the C-terminus of the capsid protein on the nucleocapsid surface, followed by binding of cellular karyopherins and nuclear import of the DP-rcDNA-containing capsid. In the nucleus, DP-rcDNA is released from the capsid (“uncoating” step 2) and converted into cccDNA by employing the host DNA repair machinery.