Hepatitus D Virus Ghosts human evolution.
Philip Deitiker
Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate a wide and ancient
radiation of African hepatitis delta virus, suggesting a
deltavirus genus of at least seven major clades.
Radjef N, Gordien E, Ivaniushina V, Gault E, Anais P, Drugan
T, Trinchet JC, Roulot D, Tamby M, Milinkovitch MC, Deny P.
Laboratoire de Bacteriologie, Virologie-Hygiene, Hopital
Avicenne, EA3406 Agents Transmissibles et Hotes,
Signalisation Cellulaire, Oncogenese, Universite Paris 13,
Bobigny, France.
Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a satellite of hepatitis B virus
(HBV) for transmission and propagation and infects nearly 20
million people worldwide. The HDV genome is a compact
circular single-stranded RNA genome with extensive
intramolecular complementarity. Despite its different
epidemiological and pathological patterns, the variability
and geographical distribution of HDV are limited to three
genotypes and two subtypes that have been characterized to
date. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on the delta
antigen gene and full-length genome sequence data show an
extensive and probably ancient radiation of African
lineages, suggesting that the genetic variability of HDV is
much more complex than was previously thought, with evidence
of additional clades. These results relate the geographic
distribution of HDV more closely to the genetic variability
of its helper HBV.