FIG 6.

Sucrose gradient centrifugation analysis of Y132A mutant core protein. (A) HepG2 cells were transfected with plasmid pHBV-1.3 or pHBV-1.3/coreY132A and harvested at 72 h posttransfection. Intracellular capsids were sedimented on a sucrose gradient (15 to 30%) with a Beckman SW28 rotor. HBV core protein/capsids in each fraction were detected by a dot blot assay and quantified with a Li-Cor Odyssey system. The sucrose density of each fraction is also plotted. The dot blot images for each of the assays were derived from two consecutive rows of a 96-well dot blot manifold. (B) HBV capsids in the cytoplasmic lysates of HepG2 cells mock transfected or transfected with plasmid pHBV-1.3 or pHBV-1.3/coreY132A were detected by 1.5% native agarose gel particle assay. (C) HepG2 cells were mock transfected or transfected with the indicated plasmids and harvested at 72 h posttransfection. Intracellular HBV core protein was analyzed by a Western blot assay with antibody HBc-170A.