Positively selected amino acid sites in the entire coding region of hepatitis C virus subtype 1b.

To predict the amino acid sites important for the clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) subtype 1b in vivo, positively selected amino acid sites were detected by analyzing the sequence data collected from the international DNA databank. The rate of nonsynonymous substitutions per nonsynonymous site was compared with that of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site for each codon site in the entire coding region. As a result, 13 out of 3010 amino acid sites were found to be positively selected. Among the 13 positively selected amino acid sites, eight were located in the structural proteins and five were in the nonstructural proteins. Moreover, eight were located in B-cell epitopes and two were in T-cell epitopes. These observations suggest that both the antibody and the cytotoxic T lymphocyte are involved in the clearance of HCV subtype 1b in vivo. These positively selected amino acid sites represent candidate vaccination targets for HCV subtype 1b.