THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCE OF SURFACE ANTIGEN GENE OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS SUBTYPE adr

The nucleotide sequence of the XhoI-BamHI fragment (1279bp), which contains the sur-face antigen gene (S gene) of HBVadr, was determined by Maxam and Gilbert’s method.By comparing the differences both of the nuclectide sequence in the S gene and its codedamino acid sequence between adr and those reported for adw, ayw and adyw, some new var-iation sites were discovered. The differences were mainly distributed in the two hydrophilieregions. However, at those sites which might show biological function, there were no varia-tions among different subtypes, they are relatively conservative in heredity and evolution.Comparing the variation of the nucleotide sequence in the S gene region with that in thenon-S gene region, it is shown that the frequency of variation in the non-S gene regiondoubled that in the S gene region. Tim S gene region is more conservative.